Random books from rocketjk's library

The French Quarter by Herbert Asbury

Gresham's War by William Crawford

The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth

The Pritcher Mass by Gordon R. Dickson

The Age of Wonders by Aron Appelfeld

Chekhov: The Major Plays by Checkhov Anton

Felipe Alou: my Life and Baseball by Felipe Alou

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Friends: benwaugh, davidabrams, goldsteph, hasprintwillread, Jaie

Interesting libraries: debweiss, eromsted, hasprintwillread, LouellaDellaTweed

LibraryThing authors: Elizabeth Jewell (ejj1955), John Reed (easyreeder)

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Member: rocketjk

Library1,846 books — see library

Reviews22 reviews — see reviews

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Tagsnovel (679), first edition (340), short stories (244), history (232), biography (121), baseball (118), essays (99), american history (86), boonville (83) — see all tags

Groups50 Book Challenge, American Revolution & Founding Fathers History, Baseball, Combiners!, Czech books, Jewish Fiction, Modern Library Collectors, Newfoundland Literature, Non-Fiction Readers, Presidential Literature — show all groups

Favorite authorsJoseph Conrad, Philip Roth (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresGreen Apple Books

About me I'm a freelance writer living in San Francisco and Boonville, CA. I grew up in New Jersey, went to college at Boston University and then went off to see America. I washed dishes in San Diego, bussed tables in Seattle, waited tables in New Orleans and spent a bunch of time exploring points in between. I got lucky and landed a spot first as a volunteer and eventually as a jazz/blues producer/host at WWNO, the NPR affiliate in New Orleans. I did that from 1980 through 1986, at which point I moved to San Francisco to get an MA in Literature/Creative Writing at San Francisco State. Since then, I've been a teacher, the Publications Coordinator for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. That all led up to my establishing Rocket Words, my writing & editing business, in 2000. Since then I've done lots of different kinds of writing for lots of different kinds of clients and publications. For about three years, I concentrated pretty heavily on jazz journalism, but now I'm back mostly to client work. I'm a huge music (jazz/rock/blues/folk) and baseball fan. Also enjoy travel and hiking. I am deliriously happily married.

About my library Lots and lots of books waiting to be read, plus a bunch I've read and kept. My favorite authors are Joseph Conrad and Philip Roth. I also have a couple of nice, big shelves of books about baseball and a fairly well-stocked shelf about music, specifically jazz.

Homepagehttp://www.rocketwords.com

Real nameJerry Karp

LocationSan Francisco

Emailjerryrocketwords.com

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/rocketjk (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/rocketjk (library)

Member sinceJan 21, 2008

Comments from other LibraryThing-ers

(Leave a comment.)

Iused to be a player, Jerry, when my son, also named Jerry, was very interested in baseball, but that was many years ago now. Haven't played in prbably 20 years. I recently received an Apba game which featured Pacific Coast League players of the '40's and '50's.

Thanks for the research offer. I'm about at the end of the tunnel but if I find I need something, I'll let you know.

Each year in August a group I head has a baseball reunion at the Oakland Museum, and you're cordially invited. I'll let you know the exact date. It will be on a Saturday.

Richard Beverage

posted by beverage at 10:46 pm (EST) on May 23, 2008

Jerry-I apologize for the tardiness in answering your January post. My son has been posting all of my new books, so I haven't been looking at librarything for quite awhile. I haven't read the stratomatic book either, It is in my stack of to reads which is much too large. I live in Southern California but lived in the Bay Area for 10 years many years ago. Earned an MBA at Golden Gate University during that period. My current connection with SF is writing. I am working with several fellows on a collaborative history of the Mission Club of San Francisco, a Pacific Coast League club that shared the City with the Seals, 1926-37.

Richard Beverage

posted by beverage at 1:28 pm (EST) on May 18, 2008

You are the only other person who shares Masterpieces of Adventure with me. I love that little four-volume set!

posted by perlle at 4:16 pm (EST) on May 10, 2008

Jerry - responding to your comment in my 50 book challenge - my Conrad experience has been Nostromo, Lord Jim, and Heart of Darkness. I remember liking Lord Jim better than I did Nostromo, which I almost quit on. Heart of Darkness, I think, may need a second read. I'm pretty sure I missed a lot in there. I'm getting The Secret Agent from the library now. The title sounds intriguing - I hope the book lives up to it!

posted by jfetting at 6:51 pm (EST) on May 5, 2008

Greetings. I am not good at keeping up on my library thing. so i did not see the note you posted in feb. until today when i checked in to add a few books. i treasure this old book on Daniel Webster. My grandmother's mother was a Webster - family line going back to Daniel's brother. Much of the family still lives near Franklin, NH. About 10 years ago I visited Daniel's birth place, the farms in Franklin and Marshfield and other sites mentioned in the book. I love the old letters in the book. I have camped on Brant Point where Webster shot ducks back in the 1840's.
It is a wonderful old book!
Cheers, Ned

posted by ncaveney at 9:31 am (EST) on Apr 26, 2008

Jerry:

Thanks for the cover to the 1974 Guide, and for the note. I like to have the covers, but not enough that I'm taking the time to generate the pix it would take to do that (lots of unusual/older books in my library). Mebbe sometime after I get caught up on--well, everything. (Fat chance....)

joel

posted by jowo at 7:32 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2008

Thanks for the info on the best route to Mendocino.

Hubby and I drove to Los Vegas via Yosemite once -- it is beautiful country.

posted by ggchickapee at 11:22 am (EST) on Apr 4, 2008

No more taco truck! Dang!

Actually, I'll be bombing through your area in April, but heading to Medocino to meet a client. Worse,I will be leaving SF at about 1:00 to meet her at 4:00. I don't think that is really possible. I have always gotten to Mendocino through Booneville because it is pretty -- but is there a faster way to go?

I so wish I could spend more time in Anderson Valley, but this won't be the trip . . .

posted by ggchickapee at 10:05 pm (EST) on Mar 26, 2008

Thank you very much for posting the cover-photo of 'Ozarks Country.' 'Tis a lovely land :)

Happy reading!

posted by CalicoGal at 1:57 am (EST) on Mar 21, 2008

Too bad about the car, but at least your wife had the taste to pose you in front of it - she sounds like a keeper. My wife helped me dismantle our '68 Firebird coupe to get parts (including a transmission) for the '67 convertible so I guess we're meant for each other.

If you are going to read just one collection of short stories from the period you should read a Lu Xun collection (they usually include The True Story of Ah Q, his best known work).

Take care,

Rob

posted by HarrisonF at 11:42 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2008

Jerry,

I've been collecting books about Chinese Modernism - literature and art - for quite a while now (in the original and in translation). There seems to be more interest in the period lately which is good. I particularly like Lu Xun (everyone's favorite from the period probably).

I noticed from you pic that you drive classic American - I have had a '67 Firebird convertible since '93 and love it - great for the LA weather.

Rob

posted by HarrisonF at 9:50 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2008

Jersey Jerry- I live in Sparta. This was our weekend retreat for many years and we moved fulltime in 2000 but now that our son is graduating college we are probably heading back to NYC where I am originally from. Caldwell is right down the road, my son played a lot of tennis in West Caldwell.

I like the photo and guess you are into restoring old cars...I know quite a few guys in Brooklyn who are into some quality restorations.

its always fun exchaging ideas about books and I have enjoyed "meeting" you at the Jewish Fiction group.

planning to stay in touch.
Bert

posted by berthirsch at 4:02 pm (EST) on Mar 12, 2008

Hi, Jerry,

I just checked out the Trudeau book on Amazon.com, and it certainly looks worthwhile. I've added it to my never-decreasing list of books to be bought on the Civil War! Thanks for the tip.

Joyce

posted by Joycepa at 7:34 pm (EST) on Mar 10, 2008

Hi Jerry- thanks for the cover tips on Hemingway's library. Just wondering if you'd like to take the lead on selecting/uploading appropriate covers for EH's library (rather than just suggesting them!).. let me know, and I'll shoot you the password.

Joel

posted by jjlong at 7:09 am (EST) on Mar 5, 2008

Welcome - and thank you for your posts. I keep meaning to become more of a contributing presence at the R & R group and hope to do so soon. I love SF, by the way. I stayed there for a few brief weeks before moving to unlovely LA in 1981. My younger brother lives there now, somewhere near the Mission district.

posted by benwaugh at 4:42 pm (EST) on Feb 21, 2008

Thanks for posting the cover, and your comments. My Pyreneean walking is limited to two treks across from St Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles/Roncevaux, but I keep meaning to do more e.g Col de Somport.

I must also do something about the missing covers, possibly as part of a shelf-check.

posted by megamorg at 8:33 pm (EST) on Feb 10, 2008

Welcome to LT from a couple of ex-San Franciscans. We've been here since 2005 and still haven't catalogued nearly all our books. We got into the LT social scene for a while but these folks are too interesting for mere casual shmoozing and we lack time for anything more. You'll find some of your neighbors at the group we started, Ancient China. Enjoy.

posted by Fogies at 3:54 am (EST) on Feb 9, 2008

welcome aboard. we share a few books together XD

posted by lisa211 at 9:59 am (EST) on Feb 6, 2008

Thanks for the comment! I'll have to change the cover on the Felipe Alou book. Judged against other sports autobiographies, it's not bad.

Carly

posted by carlym at 9:16 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2008

Hi,
Welcome to Lt. Thanks for you comment. If you liked "Dust On the Ocean" by E.L. Beach, then you should enjoy his first book of is submarine trilogy "Run Silent Run Deep". The third one is called "Cold Is The Sea".
If you are interest in historical events then his book "The Wreck of the Memphis" is excellant. It's about his fathers ship the USS Memphis that was wrecked by a tidal wave in 1916.

posted by usnmm2 at 7:05 pm (EST) on Feb 4, 2008

Hi there! Sounds like we have a lot in common! My husband and I also live in San Francisco and we have a weekend house in Philo (Holmes Ranch), just up the road from Boonville as I'm sure you know. Yep, another pair of weekenders. I haven't read those stories yet--another of way too many on my unread pile. Maybe we'll see you around the valley!

posted by hvhay at 12:45 am (EST) on Feb 1, 2008

Hi Jerry! Sorry about the delay. I have been kind-of remiss here.

Yes, I did read "The African", but that was a long time ago. At that time, I bought every single book I could find by an African author (not much--see my library--although some other volumes went into storage and never emerged) and read them all. I tend to do that kind of thing. :-)

I see we have other things in common. I majored in Journalism, although I never worked in that field. Also, I see you spent some time in Boston.

Erstwhile Editor

posted by ErstwhileEditor at 8:56 pm (EST) on Jan 27, 2008

I would love to hear more about your trip to Newfoundland. Where exactly did you and your wife go while there? Did you make it to the Rising Tide Theatre in Trinity? Did you buy lots of books while there?

Thanks for joining Newfoundland Literature!!

Debbie
Born in Come by Chance...really...lol.

posted by RisingTide65 at 7:16 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2008

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