Last week I was at a public library and came across John Wyndham’s novel Stowaway to Mars. Being a big (and recent) fan of Wyndham, I was chuffed to find a title I had never heard of before. When I went to the self-service kiosk to check out the book, the computer told me I was unable to take it out and that I should go to the circulation desk for assistance. While I waited for a member of staff (seemingly forever) I thought “What if someone has a hold on this and they don’t let me check it out?” Thinking, thinking, thinking. I stepped out of line and looked up the book in the catalog to see what its status was. The title did not come up, suggesting the book just needed a barcode, blah, blah, blah. But then I thought “What if it takes them days to give it a barcode rather than minutes?” It’s a fairly hard to find title…more thinking, thinking, thinking…Knowing they don’t have a security system for books I walked out of the library without checking it out.

Lanchester, John – The Debt to Pleasure
Lanchester, John – Capital 
In 2009, Mr. Phillips received an honorable mention when I decided my best reads for the year. In refreshing my mind on what the heck the book was about, I discovered a few reviewers who likened its plot to Ulysses. My only guess is that there aren’t similarities style-wise or I shan’t have gotten through Mr. Phillips, let alone really liked it. The plot is literally one day in the life of a newly fired accountant as he ambles about London pretending to his wife that he is at work.

Laski, Marghanita – The Village

Larkin, Philip – Jill
Larkin, Philip – A Girl in Winter
Larkin is one of the two people who helped resurrect Barbara Pym’s writing career. Known more as a poet than novelist, I couldn’t resist snapping up these two novels to see if he has any of the Pym magic or some other sort of magic that I may find interesting.

Larsen, Nella – Passing (completed)
Fascinating 1920s story of an African-American woman who passes for white even to her white, racist, husband told from the point of view of her school friend who is also light skinned but not trying to pass as white.

Laurence, Margaret – A Bird in the House
Laurence, Margaret – The Diviners
Laurence, Margaret – A Jest of God (completed)
Laurence, Margaret – The Stone Angel (completed)
Margaret Laurence was the original national treasure of Canadian authors called Margaret before that upstart Atwood sucked all the air out of the room. All four shown here form part of the Manawaka Sequence after the fictional Manitoba town in which they take place. There is another one, The Fire Dwellers, that I don’t own. Since it is the third in the sequence after The Stone Angel and A Jest of God, I have been reluctant to move on to the other two I own. I really need to get my hands on TFD so I can continue reading these brilliant books.

Lavin, Mary – The House in Clewe Street

Leary, Ann – The Good House (completed)
I bought this off of a sale table knowing nothing about it other than it has been seemingly everywhere in the blogosphere when it was published. All I remember is alcoholic real estate agent and fact that I really liked it.

Leavitt, David – While England Slept (completed)
Leavitt faced charges of plagiarism lawsuit and a copyright infringement lawsuit over the similarities between this novel and Stephen Spender’s memoir World Within World published in 1950. After pulping the first version, Leavitt reissued a revised version in 1995.  I had many unrelated qualms over this book but I still ended up enjoying it and found it quite moving. (I was not able to get over my qualms with Leavitt’s most recently novel The Two Hotel Francforts, which I found not plausible, not period, and tedious.)

Lebrecht, Norman – The Game of Opposites (completed)
Lebrecht, Norman – The Song of Names (completed)
These two novels are so good that I am frustrated that: 1) Lebrecht spends too much time being a bitchy classical music critic and not writing more novels; and 2) More people don’t read these two novels. The Song of Names read by Simon Prebble is also probably the single most brilliantly read audio book I have listened to.

Lehman, Rosamund – Invitation to the Waltz

Lerner, Ben – Leaving the Atocha Station

Lessing, Doris – The Sweetest Dream
Lessing, Doris – The Summer Before the Dark (completed)
Lessing, Doris – Five
Lessing, Doris – The Grass Is Singing
Lessing, Doris – Alfred & Emily
Lessing, Doris – Love, Again
Lessing, Doris – Ben, In the World (completed)
With the exception of her magnum opus The Golden Notebook, I really like Doris Lessing’s fiction. I thought Ben, In the World was stunning and sad and a great follow-up to the rather chilling The Fifth Child.

Leverson, Ada – The Little Ottleys

Levi, Lia – The Jewish Husband

Levine, Sara – Treasure Island!!! (completed)

Lewis, Sinclair – Arrowsmith (here in UK edition titled Martin Arrowsmith)(completed)
Lewis, Sinclair – Dodsworth (completed)
Lewis, Sinclair – Work of Art
Lewis, Sinclair – Babbitt (completed)
Lewis, Sinclair – Ann Vickers

NEXT TIME: Lewis to Markovitz

Ten years ago today I published my first blog post.

I never set out to write a blog. I had been looking at a blogspot blog and noticed a prompt at the top of the screen that asked “Do you want to start a blog?” I was bored, I needed a creative outlet, so I followed the link and the rest, as they say, is history.

Longtime readers of Hogglestock will know that my blog was called My Porch for about 9 years before I made the switch. The original title was taken from the opening of James Agee’s A Death in the Family–a book I have yet to read ten years later. I knew this bit of Agee’s work from the musical setting of it by the American composer Samuel Barber in Knoxville, Summer of 1915. To me it evokes a lazy summer evening just sitting on a front porch and chatting.

It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street and the standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees, of birds’ hung havens, hangars. People go by; things go by…

Although the early days of my blog found me taking on all sorts of topics (and sounding rather portentous in the process) I did write about books and reading with some frequency. In fact, my second post  was a paean to librarian Nancy Pearl and her fantastic Book Lust which led to many wonderful books and authors including Barbara Pym and Ward Just. Just to show you how much things have changed in ten years and how much they have stayed the same, I give you the following photo:

 

It is kind of interesting to dissect this now historical photo. If you have been following my Shelf by shelf feature on Hogglestock you will recognize the Drabble and Findley and others, but other things may surprise you. There have been some notable deletions. I decided I did not need four copies of Oryx and Crake and got rid of all but one of them. After finishing the USA Trilogy by John dos Passos, I decided I never need to read him again and got rid of them. After not finishing any of Oprah’s Faulkner set I got rid of them and hope to never read him again. I also got rid of all my D.H. Lawrence. In my mid-30s I thought I had time for stuff like that. Not so. Another difference is that I’ve jettisoned my paperback Anita Brookners for the hardcover U.S. first editions that I have found cheap here and there. Looking at this I also realize that my Drabble collection has expanded greatly yet one of them in the photo remains unread a decade later. That’s kind of crazy.

The Evolution of MyPorch/Hogglestock
I ambled along for about three years writing about books now and then. I had a very small following. Mostly people who knew me. The more I started to write about books the more I began to bore my core audience. Around that time I also stumbled across the world of book bloggers. I don’t remember which Simon I found first but one led to the other. I remember Simon Thomas at Stuck in a Book blogging about Persephone Books and the Bloomsbury reissues of Miss Hargreaves and Henrietta’s War. And I remember Simon Savidge at Savidge Reads blogging about sensation novels and Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White specifically. I had come across one or two book blogs prior to that, but discovering the two Simons was a real eye opener. These were kindred spirits and they opened up a whole world of UK book bloggers to me. I found myself swept up in all kinds of book blogging challenges, reading weeks, memes, and all kinds of other reading mayhem, not to mention lots of Transatlantic book orders.

I also ended up finding bloggers in North America. There was BookishNYC who used to blog about books she saw on her commute and the people reading them. JoAnn at Lakeside Musing was always good for reading inspiration. I followed, and eventually became friends in real life with, local bloggers Teresa (Shelf Love) and Frances (Nonsuch Book).

And there was Darlene in Ontario and her fantastic border collie Deacon. She used to blog at Roses Over a Cottage Door and has a blog roll there that reads like a who’s who of my early blog reading life. Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm. And raise your hand if you remember Verity’s Virago Venture? And so many, many, more too numerous to list. One of the sad things about moving to Hogglestock was no longer having a blog roll.

Sometime in 2009 my bookish comments on other blogs started to drive traffic to my own and I began to wonder if they were my real audience rather than the faithful 12 friends and family who occasionally came by to have a look. Eventually I decided to take the leap and focus more on books and haven’t regretted it for a moment. I continue to meet so many interesting bookish people thanks to Hogglestock.

I’ve done a lot of other fun things on, and because of, the blog over the years. I’ve met probably 30 different book bloggers in the US, UK, Netherlands, and Thailand. It has been wonderful and a great way to chat about books. I think most of us realize how great social media has been in bringing together bookish people–especially for those of us who don’t have many bookish friends in real life.

A HUGE thanks to all of you who read Hogglestock and especially those who comment. I love hearing other people’s perspective and getting a discussion going. It is by far the best part of blogging.

P.S. Earlier Notoriety
In the early days of my blog I wrote about a women’s folk music group from the 1960s that I had fallen in love with in college. After a almost 20-year, largely fruitless search for information, I finally managed to track down three of the surviving four members of Womenfolk. This led to this post, I met Babs Cooper in NYC, the reunion of the women after almost 40 years, and this article about my quest in the Washington CityPaper.

 

No sooner do I mention that I have been on a reading streak when it starts to slow down. I finished the amazing Station Eleven and didn’t know what to move on to. Thankfully not a full reading slump. Seems like a small blip given that I found two more books pretty quickly to get me back on track. The slight difficulty for me was not a lack of good books to read, but the opposite. Not only have I purchased tons of old and new books but I have also started using the library again.

Recently on Goodreads, Carol Ann asked me if I was a fast reader because she couldn’t figure out how I could read so much. Compared to some bloggers I am a sloth, but here are my secrets to reading a lot.

FACTS OF LIFE
1. I don’t have kids
2. I do read fairly quickly. At least compared to audio book narrators, I probably read at least 50% faster than they do.

MAKING TIME
3. I listen to audio books on my commute which is at least five hours a week.
4. I read at lunch.
5. I always have a book with me.
6. Sometimes I even read for 15 to 30 minutes in the morning before leaving for work.

APPROACH TO READING CHOICES
7. I’ve gotten really good about setting aside books that I don’t like.
8. I generally don’t let other people tell me what to read.
9. Lots of variety (or not!) depending on my mood.

SHELF THIRTEEN: 32 books, 16 unread, 16 read, 50% completed

Jenkins, Elizabeth – The Tortoise and the Hare (completed)
One of those odd cases of a man leaving a glamorous younger woman for a tweedy, age-appropriate one. When I wrote about this four years ago, I likened this story to the Charles/Diana/Camilla triangle. Really enjoyed this one. Quintessentially Virago.

Jenkins, Herbert – Patricia Brent, Spinster (completed)
This is what I wrote about this one in 2013: “This one comes close to Miss Buncle status for me. An absolutely delightful idea for a book that reminded me in a tiny way of the George Glass episode of The Brady Bunch where Jan is tired of everyone thinking she is a lonely loser so she makes up a boyfriend. That is exactly what Patricia Brent does, except it is 1918 London, not 1970s California. And like Frank Baker’s Miss Hargreaves, Patricia’s lie becomes real–although without the supernatural elements of the Baker–and many complications ensue. This out of print (I think) gem has Persephone written all over it.  If you find a copy snap it up. I was lucky enough to get mine from British expat Roz who some of you know.”

Jesse, E. Tennyson – The Lacquer Lady

Jones, Sadie – Fallout

Joyce, James – Dubliners
I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and really disliked it. In general I have written off the impenetrable Joyce and have no intention of ever trying again. Except for this one. During the Art of the Novella challenge that I attempted a few Augusts ago, I read The Dead, which is a part of Dubliners. I loved The Dead and so think it may be possible I will like the rest of the book.

Joyce, Rachel – The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (completed)
I just read this one recently and really loved it. Attempted the sequel and had the opposite reaction, didn’t even finish it–an example of not slowing myself down with books I am not enjoying.

Just, Ward – The Congressman who Loved Flaubert (completed)
Just, Ward – Honor, Power, Riches, Fame and the Love of Women (completed)
Just, Ward – Lowell Limpett and Two Stories (completed)
Just, Ward – A Family Trust (completed)
Just, Ward – Forgetfulness
Just, Ward – Echo House (completed)
Just, Ward – The Translator (completed)
Just, Ward – The Weather in Berlin (completed)
Just, Ward – Twenty-one Selected Stories
Just, Ward – American Romantic
Just, Ward – Rodin’s Debutante
Just, Ward – Exiles in the Garden (completed)
Just, Ward – An Unfinished Season (completed)
Just, Ward – The Translator (completed)
As you can see, I like Ward Just. I had never heard of him until I read Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust. A former reporter for the Washington Post, Just writes really great fiction about politics and government–but you don’t have to be interested in those things to like his books. Many are set in Washington, at least one about Chicago politics, and a few written in conflict zones, or in the milieu of American embassies abroad. Not all of the are perfect, but he really is a superb writer. In addition to these, there are at least three more that I have read: Jack Gance, In the City of Fear, and The American Ambassador.

Kaye-Smith, Sheila – Joanna Godden

Keane, Molly – Devoted Ladies

Kennedy, Margaret – Lucy Carmichael
Kennedy, Margaret – The Feast
Kennedy, Margaret – Troy Chimneys
Kennedy, Margaret – The Ladies of Lyndon (completed)
I really, really liked The Ladies of Lyndon so I am not sure why I haven’t read any of the other Kennedy’s I own.

Keyes, Frances Parkinson – Joy Street
Keyes, Frances Parkinson – Also the Hills
Keyes, Frances Parkinson – The Letter from Spain
I am assuming I am going to love Keyes when I get around to reading her.

King, Lily – Euphoria

Koch, Herman – The Dinner (completed)
Koch, Herman – Summer House with Swimming Pool (completed)
I love these two books so much I am willing to overlook some serious implausibilities in both. I love how Koch explores how seemingly upstanding people can be evil.

NEXT TIME: Lanchester to Lewis

I have been on a reading roll lately. For once my reading ambition is meeting up with the time I actually spend reading. Not quite at the half-way point, I’m already at almost 49 books for the year. Normally this would have me worried about a reading slump, but for reasons I will discuss in a future blog post, I’m not every remotely worried about that. Just the opposite. I can’t get enough. So, all this reading means reviewlets.

The Safety of Objects by A.M. Homes
This collection of short stories was fantastic. I also enjoyed Homes’ novel May We Be Forgiven, but her short stories do what good short stories do, they pack a lot of punch in a few pages. And happily, none of them left me scratching my head wondering what the hell just happened, but they did provide plenty for me to mull over. Like MWBF, Homes writes characters who don’t always have their sh*t together but are likable (or even lovable) anyway. The description of the film adaptation of this collection sounds awful–like a hot Hollywood mess.

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
I’ve read a lot of books recently with awesome covers and this one might be the awesomest. Even after reading this memoir I only have a vague notion of what blogger Jenny Lawson does, but I feel like I have a really good sense of who she is: funny and quirky and pretty darn delightful, with side orders of mental illness (her words). I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed reading this, but I had a ton of fun listening to her read it. I also learned a boatload about mental issues and how the world needs to quit being so judgmental and expecting everyone to fit a particular mold. It has a certain Lena Dunham quality to it but from a less millennial standpoint and more from someone my own age (GenX in the house!). I look forward to listening to her other book.

The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
Kind of funny to follow the taxidermy-laden Furiously Happy and it’s mental health medicine-taking narrator with a squirrel-obsessed, mental health medicine-taking narrator in The Portable Veblen. The similarity ends there, but it did seem kind of funny at the time. This Bailey’s Prize short listed novel follows Veblen as she courts, and becomes engaged. Sometimes I fear book prize short lists because they seem to reward hard-to-read, too-clever books, so I approached this one with hesitation. The reference to economist/sociologist Thorstein Veblen also had me worried this was going to be a case of an author trying too hard. But, much like the influential squirrels in the novel, the squirrel on the cover won me over, and I am glad he did. The potential mismatch between Veblen and her research-scientist boyfriend as they hurdle toward marriage reminded me a tiny bit of Margaret Atwood’s first novel The Edible Woman. But, as with my Furiously Happy connection, that is where the similarity ends. McKenzie’s tale is much funnier and not as deep–but it does seem to have more to say, at least on more topics.

The Spare Room by Helen Garner
A 60-something woman stays with a 60-something friend of hers so that she can undergo three weeks of alternative medicine to treat her untreatable cancer. Not surprisingly, it is kind of dark and sad and made me think a lot not just about dying and how I would face dying, but also how I would handle someone else dying. The former in philosophical terms, the latter in practical terms. I suppose the book is not for everyone but it has me wondering if I would like other books by Garner. Maybe something without cancer.

The Partners by Louis Auchincloss
I’ve read two novels by Auchincloss now. The first, The Book Class, was about women of his mother’s generation and the places they held in upper class social circles in Manhattan. It didn’t necessarily go anywhere but it was interesting and funny at times, and was a great look at a slice of New York society. The Partners kind of falls into that same category. This time, the cast of characters, and slice of New York Society, centers on the goings on at an old, establishment, white-shoe law firm. It deals mainly with partnership issues and administration of the firm, but that uncovers a lot of fascinating characters and relationships along the way. It’s kind of like L.A. Law meets Trollope.

The Lonely by Paul Gallico
After reading 4 or 5 books by Gallico, the lesson I have learned is: Stop buying books by Gallico. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris may be one of my favorite books, but the rest of his stuff (so far) is boring and predictable. I could spot the end of this one a mile away.

The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle
If you are looking for a lighthearted, quasi-thriller, focused on wine collecting, then this is the book for you. It will take you about 10 minutes to read and leave your mind relatively free of thought both during and after. Mayle’s depiction of Americans is not clever or insightful, but more like the American characters on As Time Goes By. And let’s not even mention the role of women in his books—nothing incendiary, just the fantasies of an old white man who fancies himself a catch.

Housefrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
When I first saw this book popping up on social media I loved cover design with its juxtaposition of the floral bouquet with sans serif font. I was inclined to buy it, but then I started seeing it everywhere and my inner grouch got the best of me and decided against it. But recently I’ve been doing two things that are slightly uncharacteristic for me: 1) using the public library again; and 2) looking at the new arrivals shelves. In the process, I picked up Housefrau and thought “why not?” and “why didn’t I want to read this?”.

This novel absolutely begs to be discussed. American housewife Anna is living in Zurich with her Swiss husband and she is bored, and depressed, and can’t quite figure out what she wants out of life. One could get into all kinds of heated discussions about Anna’s actions and there are also plenty of plot points that beg to be discussed both at face value and in terms of their literary value. I found parts of it moving and worth the read, but I’m not running around wanting to tell people about it. (Like I guess I just did.)

I don’t really have hard and fast rules about what I keep on my shelves. I know some people keep only books they have loved. Others only keep books they know they want to re-read. (Some don’t keep any, but they are just sick in the head.) This edition of Shelf by Shelf brings me to a situation where I weeded one unread book (The Finkler Question) because I decided it fell into the “life is too short to bother” category. The shelf also has an author (Hesse) who falls into the “life is too short and I want to read this author again as I approach the end of my life” category. Until I just wrote that, I didn’t even know I had that category. But it is amazing how true it is. There are some books I might re-read one day but I find Hesse so comforting and life affirming and full of universal truths. At least as Hermann and I see them.

 

SHELF TWELVE: 48 books, 30 unread, 18 read, 37.5% completed

Hemingway, Ernest – The Sun Also Rises (completed)
Hemingway, Ernest – The Old Man and the Sea (completed)
Hemingway, Ernest – The Garden of Eden (completed)
Hemingway, Ernest – In Our Time
I think I may actually be a fan of Hemingway. If I had had to read The Old Man and the Sea in high school like my niece did, I am sure I would not have liked it. But as a 40-something I really liked it.

Hesse, Hermann – Klingsor’s Last Summer (completed)
Hesse, Hermann – Strange News from Another Star
Hesse, Hermann – Narcissus and Goldmund (completed)
Hesse, Hermann – Knulp (completed)
Hesse, Hermann – Peter Camenzind (completed)
Hesse, Hermann – Beneath the Wheel (completed)
For a while I thought that my Hermann Hesse obsession, spawned in high school, may have been a young gay boy’s affection for an author who seemed to have invented the bromance. But I have done a fair amount of re-reading in the past few years and I find I love him just as much now and for better, more substantive reasons.

Hocking, Mary – The Winter City (completed)
Hocking, Mary – Visitors to the Crescent 
Hocking, Mary – The Sparrow
Hocking, Mary – The Young Spaniard
Hocking, Mary – A Time of War
Hocking, Mary – Ask No Question
Hocking, Mary – Checkmate
Hocking, Mary – The Hopeful Traveller
Hocking, Mary – The Climbing Frame
Hocking, Mary – Indifferent Heroes
Hocking, Mary – Welcome Strangers
Hocking, Mary – Good Daughters
As I’ve written about recently, I bought all 12 of these reissues because I couldn’t resist. Even though I hadn’t read anything by the author. My first experience was good, but the jury is out on how much I will appreciate this author overall. I certainly have plenty to choose from.

Holtby, Winifred – Poor Caroline
Holtby, Winifred – South Riding

Holleran, Andrew – The Beauty of Men
I read a bunch of Holleran in my youth. I’ve been rereading gay fiction from my formative years and am finding with some of it that I am not impressed with it in terms of the limited point of view of gay authors in the 1980s. Definitely over represented by well to do, ivy league types living NYC lives. Blanket statement I know, but kind of true.

Homes, A.M. – May We Be Forgiven (completed)
I really enjoyed this novel. Funny and touching and a little nerve-wracking (in a good way). I have since read her short story collection The Safety of Objects and thought they were brilliant.

Hosain, Attia – Sunlight on a Broken Column

Houellebecq, Michel – Atomised

Household, Geoffrey – Rogue Male (completed)
I’ve written about his one many times. The hero of the book tries to assassinate the unnamed Hitler and spends the hole book on the run.

Howells, William Dean – The Landlord at Lion’s Head

Huxley, Aldous – Brave New World (completed)
Huxley, Aldous – Point Counter Point (completed)
Huxley, Aldous – Those Barren Leaves
Huxley, Aldous – Chrome Yellow (completed)
Aldous Huxley has a read able side and a more “Modern” side (with a capital M). I prefer the former. Brave New World is dystopian but highly readable. I believe Chrome Yellow is the novel that made Barbara Pym want to be a writer.

Hyland M.J. – How the Light Gets In
I bought this purely for the fact that the title is a line from a Leonard Cohen song that I love.

Isherwood, Christopher – Lions and Shadows
Isherwood, Christopher – A Meeting by the River (completed)
I really love A Meeting by the River. Not only my favorite Isherwood, but also makes my list of favorite books. Maybe.

Ishiguro, Kazuo – A Pale View of the Hills

Jackson, Shirley – We Have Always Lived at the Castle (completed)
I really enjoyed this rather spooky tale. The Haunting of Hill House, not so much. Didn’t like the premise, so I didn’t even finish it.

James, Henry – A London Life
James, Henry – The Europeans
Although I kind of liked The Portrait of a Lady, I find James a bit impenetrable. But not ready to totally write him off. (But it’s close.)

Jacobson, Howard – The Finkler Question
Since I took this picture a few months ago, I have weeded this book out and put it in the donate pile. A Booker-winner that I have never read. After listening to a bit of the audio book I decided I wouldn’t be upset if I never read it.

Jameson, Storm – None Turn Back

Jansson, Tove – Travelling Light (completed)
Jansson, Tove – Fair Play
Jansson, Tove – The True Deceiver
Jansson, Tove – The Summer Book (completed)
I loved the stories in Travelling Light, but was less enthusiastic about The Summer Book.

NEXT TIME: Jenkins to Koch

The soon to be departed Books on the Nightstand podcast is again conducting their summer book bingo. Between now and Labor Day, readers are invited to download a unique bingo card and then fill in the blanks with books read over the summer. These bingo cards are tons of fun. Even if you do as badly as I did last year, they have tons of fun book categories that provide good inspiration for what to read next.

You can find the link to get your own bingo card here. Just make sure you refresh the screen once you get there. And if you are like me, you will keep refreshing until you get one you like.

You can listen to me and Simon talk about our cards on the most recent episode of The Readers.

You can see my card below.

[6/3/16 UPDATE: I was going to make this the subject of a future blog/podcast, but based on early comments about my bingo card I think I need to ‘fess up sooner rather than later. I totally edited my card. The categories were still randomly assigned, but there were fewer of them for the computer to pick from. So I miss out on trying new things like Steampunk and Manga, but the chance of me trying to find and read either was zero. I didn’t want to mention my manipulation of the card, not because I’m afraid to admit I totally cheat or change the rules when it comes to reading challenges, but because I didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag that one could do that. But some people are tweeting about how you do it, so I figure I’m not really holding a secret. Having made this confession, I will say that there are still plenty of squares that are off my normal reading path (Western, book that scares me, science fiction, a book everyone has read, etc.). So am I committing a crime against book bingo? Probably.]

And here is one that I made up as a joke. The funny thing is, Anita Brookner wrote 24 novels and there are 24 squares, so I could actually do this. Of course it would mean reading nothing but Brookner over the summer. I love her work to bits, but that might be a bit much even for me.

Remember when I came out against un-curated Little Free Libraries?

The giant bound volume of an academic journal from 1961. Really? After I took the picture–without really noting the title of the bound periodicals–I thought “Hmm, maybe they would be kind of cool magazines from 1961 and would be cool for the advertising alone.” Then I went back and saw the title again. No chance of that being fun to look through.

A book in French because that won’t sit there forever.

Hacky Sack? Do people read when they are stoned?

Nothing against the Lee and Bob Woodruff book, but it is so typical of what shows up on DC bookshelves.

Didn’t know the Utne Reader still existed.

Time and Navigation. The kind of book you buy at the Smithsonian when intrigued by something. Best case scenario, it ends up by the toilet. Who wants a free toilet book?