Upcoming posts / notes

My schedule has been overbooked for some time now, but the last few months I have made it a priority to focus on posting notes on books after I finish certain tasks. Unfortunately, most days I only get some of those tasks done, leaving no time to work on posts. In the next few weeks, though, I would really like to get a few posts out the door on some books I'd really like to share with you. In the (hypothetical) pipeline:

Passage through the Red Sea by Zofia Romanowicz
Originally published in Polish as Przejscie Przez Morze Czerwone
See the post at The Neglected Books Page for more information on this book, which included a review on an out-of-print book that described it as odd, repellent, and powerful. As the NBP editor noted, such descriptions are the call of one neglected book fanatic to another. Yes, I read it. And yes, it is odd. Repellent. And powerful. More on that soon.

The Disinherited by Benito Pérez Galdós
Originally published in Spanish as La desheredada
This is the novel where Galdós hit his stride. Starting with The Disinherited, Galdós published 22 novels in a decade, what are now called the Novelas españolas contemporáneas. It's clear in this book that Galdós was now on a higher plateau in writing, although he still had a little way to go to reach the level of Fortunata and Jacinta. Still, it's a pleasure to find writing of this quality.

The White King: Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr by Leanda de Lisle
See the publisher's page for the Author’s Note and the opening of the Preface. From the Author's Note:

This new portrait, informed by previously unseen royal correspondence, depicts a brave and principled king who inspired great loyalty but who was also a man of flesh and blood. Charles the Martyr and Charles the Murderer, lauded by friends and condemned by enemies, is largely forgotten, but in popular memory something just as extreme remains. Charles has been pinned to the pages of history as a failed king, executed at the hands of his own subjects, and now preserved like some exotic but desiccated insect. In may accounts it seems that Charles was doomed to fail almost from birth, his character immutable.

Lastly, a couple of books read last year on the American Revolutionary War. First is a work of fiction: Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Roberts, which looks at the war from the perspective of a Loyalist. The second is Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth by Holger Hoock. Hoock focuses on the violence carried out by both sides so a reader can better understand what really happened during those years.

Do you keep track of your books?

Yesterday I was in a used bookstore and they had several Library of America books in good shape, ranging from $8 to $12. I wanted to pick up several of them, but a few of the books were by authors that had multiple volumes in the series. A couple of them I knew I didn't have, but a couple of books I wasn't sure if I had them or not (due to forgetfulness and a family member "borrowing" and not returning one). I was wishing I had a list or database of some sort to check against, so I was wondering if anyone kept track of their books for just such a situation. It seems like overkill, but I'm not always going to be able to text my boys to send me pictures of the bookcase so I could see if I already had a certain book.

I thought I wouldn't need such a list for too many books or series, but after buying a used history book to replace one I thought I had culled (and had not), I'm wondering if I need to include more in such a database/list. So do any of you keep such a list for your books? And if so, how do you do it?

Thanks! Oh, by the way, here's the first picture my son sent me to make sure he had the right bookcase. I'll need to take better pictures of the bookcases on our landing and post them after I rearrange them to fit the latest acquisitions. They came about totally by accident, but I dearly love them.

Spirituality

There's no way to summarize California in just one picture, but this one covers a few aspects.

This picture was taken a couple of hours before sunset on August 5th at Manresa State Beach, a few miles south of Santa Cruz. There's a church holding baptisms in the ocean while surfers are enjoying waist-chest high sets and I just had to try to capture it. There would be many more surfers joining soon after the organized religious rituals were finished.

A gift and an old friend

I was happy to get the perfect birthday gift this year—Vladislav Vančura's The End of the Old Times (Konec starých časů). I have been looking for a copy to call my own since I read the book about 4½ years ago. My comments on the book are here. It's a wonderful novel, enjoyable at both a superficial level and also as commentary on pretentious and pretending aristocracy. It has been on my wish list for five years, so I'm extremely grateful to finely get a copy.

The friend is the 1990 Baumard Quarts de Chaume, the last of a case I bought almost 20 years ago. Although it shows further aging potential, it's an old friend I want to enjoy this year. So I'm enjoying a Czech with something from the Loire...consistency has never been a strong point for me. I hope everyone's weekend will be as enjoyable as mine!

An appreciation and note of gratitude for David Womack

I received word that David Womack, a true mentor and influence on my life, passed away on July 11, 2018. For someone that had such a huge, giving heart, it's a sad irony that it was that physical organ that failed him.

For a few semesters when I was in college, I lived at his house in Tuscaloosa. At the time I appreciated all he did, but I wasn't capable until much later to fully fathom what all he had done for me. His selfless actions in the service organization we were a part of was truly inspirational.

It's my fault that a post thanking him for all he did has not appeared here before now, so I guess I'm trying to make up for it. The best I can hope to do is pass on to my boys his spirit of service and dedication to others.

So here's a totally embarrassing pic (yeah, I'm in there somewhere) taken outside of David's house, I'm guessing from the fall of 1982. The poses are an inside joke...

From David's obituary:

David Womack died July 11 at Druid City Hospital of congestive heart failure, but leaves an inspiring legacy through hundreds of members of Circle K (CK) whom he advised for decades at the University of Alabama (UA). He also was District Administrator for CK for years.

David’s calling for the past 43 years was developing young people into leaders in community service. Under David’s Leadership, The University of Alabama’s Circle K and the Alabama district had students elected to district and international offices. Trophies and plaques were won by his members, the Alabama District, and by David himself. Circle K chapter scrapbooks won awards. He was a Tuscaloosa Kiwanian for years, served a term as president and was on the board at the time of his death. His most prized Kiwanis award was the 1989 Circle of Service Award, created to “recognize & honor an individual within Kiwanis International who has made the most outstanding contribution to all of Circle K International.

Studying Thucydides in Zimbabwe

I received a nice note from a teacher in Zimbabwe ("somewhat isolated from the academic world," as they put it) commenting that my posts on Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War has helped them and it has paid off for their students. That note, along with other nice comments from students reading the book and finding help from my posts, cheer me every time I see them. While the stats are unimpressive to commercial sites or bloggers, I find it astounding that there have been over 300K visits my posts directly about Thucydides' work. I hope those posts continue to help others working to make sense of a seminal work of literature and one of my favorite books. I'm sure I'll revisit it and add some more updates since I feel my notes have only scratched the surface of what makes it so original.

I'll be back after a couple of days, after recovering from exploring Yosemite with my family and then going back to pick up my boys once their three-day class there has finished. Meanwhile, I want to express my gratitude for everyone who has let me know how much those posts have assisted their reading and understanding of Thucydides.

I leave you with how the sky above Half Dome looked yesterday...

Updating

Yesterday was the first day in about sixteen months that I was pain-free for a few hours. I cannot tell you how great that felt. It turns out I got very little done during that time, though. I found myself simply enjoying the feeling. Or lack of it, I guess.

I know I've said this a few times already, but I'm hoping to begin blogging again (not to mention reading for more than a few minutes at a time) once I get back to some semblance of normal, or to whatever the new normal happens to be. There's another procedure planned for the end of November, which may be the last of what is needed to be something resembling whole again. We will see how things go. Thanks so much for your patience!

Meister Eckhart and The Joshua Tree

There was a flurry of news last week celebrating the 30th anniversary of U2's The Joshua Tree, and it brought back a fond memory I've always associated with the album. I hope you'll indulge this onion-on-my-belt moment...

The weekend after the album was released, I caught a flight to spend a weekend with my brother. I had copied a few albums to cassette, one of which was The Joshua Tree, to play during my flights. I ended up being the last person to board a full Southwest flight, so the only place open was a center seat near the back. The aisle seat was occupied by a bearded man I would guess to have been in his mid-30s. As he stands up to let me in to my seat, I notice he's reading a book about Meister Eckhart. After I get settled but before he had a chance to resume reading, I took a guess and asked, "Are you taking a course on mysticism?"

The look of disbelief on his face was priceless. He turned the book over so I could see the cover and replied, "Yes I am. Are you familiar with Eckhart?" I had to admit that I had only tried to read some of his work when I was in high school and didn't get very far. It turned out he was working on his doctorate at Southern Methodist University (another coincidence...from my office I had a beautiful view of the campus) and was doing some research. He was very gracious and patiently answered some questions I had and we had a brief discussion on other books he had to read for the class. I could tell he wanted to get back to his book, so I thanked him and put my headphones back on to listen to U2. Later, as we're getting off the plane, he laughed and shook my hand. "The guys in my class aren't going to believe this," he said, gesturing with his book toward me.

While it was an inconsequential episode, it has obviously stuck with me for some reason along with the association.

I wish I could come up with a catchy post title

I hope to post soon on some of the books I've read over the past few months. I can't make any promises, but I really want to relay a few comments on some of the better ones. Much depends on...well, a lot of things, not the least on some follow-up surgeries to help relieve the intense pain I've had for the past six+ months. It's remarkable the change in mindset that can occur in such circumstances.

Sorry for going into personal detail, but I wanted to say the blog and I aren't dead. Yet. Hopefully we'll both feel like rejoining the world of the living soon.

Follow up

Once again, I apologize for the silence. I'm dealing with an intense amount of pain that just doesn't seem to lessen...it just changes forms.

Speaking of which, are there novels that deal with intense physical pain more than just in passing for a character? Not that I want to read it, now or ever. Mental/emotional/psychological problems get dealt with in novels so much easier than physical ailments. There's only so many ways you can say "It friggin' hurt a lot" for characters.

Whacha readin'? (screen edition)

Last night I was watching 2013's movie Now You See Me, a film about four magicians/illusionists who pull scams for the benefit of their audiences. After the first job (what appears to be a bank heist), the FBI comes to the illusionists' suite to arrest them. The character played by Woody Harrelson is on the couch reading Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives. The novel's plot about the search for Cesárea Tinajero by two aspiring poets dovetails nicely with one of the movie's subplots: is there a mastermind behind the four illusionists' heists and, if so, who is it? Someone had to have put some thought into what book to put in Harrelson's hands, brief though the shot may be.

I obviously love looking for things like this in movies, additionally so for anything book related. One of my favorite inclusion of a book as a prop comes from an episode of The X-Files television series. "The Goldberg Variations" episode opens with a novice poker player winning big against a Chicago mob boss. The player, Henry Weems, miraculously survives being thrown from the top of a 29-story building by the mobsters. FBI agents interview Weems in his apartment after the incident. As they scan across the Rube Goldberg-like contraptions Weems has created, his bookcase comes into view. A hardcover copy of Michael Lewis' Liars Poker is clearly visible. The subject of the book has little relevance to the story other than the inclusion of "poker" in the title, but the fact that someone had to have thought about putting that book in the shot delights me.

I'm always interested in hearing about book inclusions like this from the screen, large or small, so if you have a favorite let me know!

Willie Garson as Henry Weems in The X-Files episode "The Goldberg Variations
(Approximately 13:30 into the episode)
Click picture for more detail

Gratitude

I have felt down about a lot of things lately, and not being able to blog consistently has been a part of that. Fortunately, my wife constantly reminds me (through her actions) of the beneficial power of gratitude. I want to say a word of thanks to all those that have commented here and especially to you who still check in here occasionally.

I also want to thank the vibrant community of book bloggers, who take the time and effort to post about what you've read and sharing your experiences. Even though I don't always comment on how your posts have added to my own reading experience, I'll take the opportunity now to express how fortunate and grateful I feel to have the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful exchange. Thanks so much.

Ahem…is this thing on?

I realize things have been rather quiet here the past couple of months, but I've got a nice backlog of posts ready to write. Time will be freeing up soon to do so.

One reason things have been quiet is that I was helping my wife with her book proposal, which I'm happy to announce, won the Hay House Writer's Workshop (San Francisco 2013) grand prize! Now she just has to write the book, but I told her not to even worry about it until next week. Time to celebrate…

Happy Valentine's Day

Seventeen years ago was a "Plan B" first Valentine's Day weekend with my then-girlfriend, now wife. Yeah, we get sappy here sometimes. Sorry about that. But you never know when life is shooting down your first and "best" plan while better things lie in wait. For more details, I'll forward you to this post. In the meantime, have a nice weekend!

The "Thanksgiving Day Disaster"

Front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30, 1900
Source: Sudden Death: Boys Fell to Their Doom in S.F.'s Forgotten Disaster
(SF Weekly News)

I took the boys to a history class today where Tobin Gilman talked about his book 19th Century San Jose in a Bottle. During the talk Gilman touched on the "Thanksgiving Day Disaster," something I had not heard about until today. I found the story so fascinating, covering the deadliest body count at a U.S. sporting event, I thought I would pass it on.

The first football game between Cal and Stanford was played in 1892. By 1900 the rivalry had intensified so much the match was titled "The Big Game." The site for the Thanksgiving Day 1900 game was Recreation Park in San Francisco, holding 19,000 spectators. Another group of people, mostly kids, climbed atop the nearby Pacific Glass Works building.

Worse yet, fans clambered to the highest accessible point, the 100-foot-long rectangular ventilator rising 4 feet from the apex of the roof. This open-sided structure was supported only by wooden braces — and, ominously, the fans' perch was directly above the hottest portion of the factory. Forty-five feet below the thousands of stamping feet loomed the squat, 30-by-60-foot east furnace. Fifteen tons of molten glass bubbled within at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit — a temperature on par with a red dwarf star. This was the only furnace in action that day. More observant fans would have noticed the capping atop the chimney behind them glowing red as it emitted a persistent plume of smoke.

What happens next is a horror difficult to imagine. Around 200 people, mostly kids, fell inside the Glass Works building as its ceiling collapsed. Half fell to the floor, sustaining life-threatening injuries, but they were the lucky ones. The other half fell right over the furnace, hitting the furnace top, severing furnace fuel pipes, and igniting the flowing 'fuel.' The SF Weekly article linked above provides more grisly details (as well as expanding on additional issues).

I'm a little late in warning that the story isn't for the squeamish, but I'm more surprised that I had never heard of this incident until today. Judging by the article's language, I guess I'm not the only one.

Happy New Year

I'd like to wish a happy new year to everyone. I'm looking forward to 2014 and I plan on showing my gratitude to all that stop by here by reinvigorating the blog. I've been reading a lot of interesting books lately and have many more lined up to read, so posting will resume soon.

As far as adding to intended projects for later this year, I think this picture will provide a clue as to what will keep me busy for some time to come.

Happy 1,000th post!

Blogger tells me this is my 1,000th post on this site. So I'll pass along a picture I took today while the boys and I were touring the mining museum in New Almaden, California. I just wish I had a book with me to drop in the lending library.

If you'd like to learn about New Almaden, here's a link that talks about the mining operations for cinnebar. The town was named after the Almaden mine in Spain, mentioned by Pliny the Elder almost 2,000 years ago.

Oops

I didn't mean to disappear for a couple of weeks but it happened. I'll try and get back on track tomorrow with the final post on the Hyperion edition devoted to Miklós Szentkuthy, including a few notes on the wonderful excerpt from Black Renaissance. To hold my feet to the fire, I'll follow up with something on Imre Kertész's Fiasco and then I'll hopefully have finished Zsigmond Móricz's Relations. Wow, there really has been a focus on Hungarian writers of late...

My apologies

My computer died today. And then I made sure the damn thing was dead. Deader than dead. And then some.

Not that he was waiting for the letter, but Michael Dell will not be receiving an invitation to any of our parties any time soon. But then that's been true for the past few years of having to put up with the piece of crap Dell sold me.

I have backups saved as of a couple of weeks ago but I'm mostly worried about all the homeschool work I might have lost since then...my focus right now is on making sure our lessons are uninterrupted. I know I've lost some notes and material on books I'll never get back again, but when you know you're dealing with something that has been as horrible on reliability as what I have had to deal with for so long...shame on me.

Part of me feels good to get rid of the POS (correct me if I'm wrong on the technical description Mr. Dell) that just died, but it will take a few days to get things in order so I can refocus on the blog. Again, my apologies, and hopefully regular blogging will resume soon.

Happier post

The article Calvin & Hobbes Creator's Life Lessons Become Beautiful New Comic is artist Gavin Aung Than's comic based on a speech Bill Watterson gave at Kenyon College in 1990. Well worth taking a few minutes to read and enjoy the artwork.

"To invent your own life's meaning is not easy but it is still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."

Regular posting should resume some time next week...