kidzdoc is cutting down the mountain of unread books in 2012: part 1

Those of you who lack adequate visual acuity may think that the mountain in the background of this photo is Table Mountain, outside of Cape Town. That's a good guess, but you're wrong. It's actually my mountain of unread books, which number over 1000. Here is a closeup view of Mount TBR:



Clearly, this is both a public health hazard and a personal problem, as I've had to move my bed to the patio to make room for the near constant influx of books into my home. (Not really.) A feeble attempt at a TBR reduction program in 2011 was a spectacular failure, as well over 300 new books were added to the pile, and only 39 TBR books were read. It's time for a change. So, in the memory and spirit of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, who captured their first World Series title after 72 years of futility:



Before we get started, the owner of this thread has a simple request:

Currently reading:



The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Completed books:

January:
1. Volcano by Shusaku Endo (review)
2. False Friends: Book Two by Ellie Malet Spradbery (review)
3. A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World by Tony Gould (review)
4. Best Mets: Fifty Years of Highs and Lows from New York's Most Agonizingly Amazin' Team by Matthew Silverman (review)
5. Walkabout by James Vance Marshall (review)

My 2012 groups and threads on LibraryThing (in addition to the 75 Books Challenge):

Club Read 2012: kidzdoc's Assault on Mount TBR in 2012
Medicine: Darryl's (kidzdoc's) books and thoughts about Medicine
Orange January/July: Darryl's 12 Oranges in 2012
Booker Prize: kidzdoc's BookerFest
Non-Fiction Challenge/Journal: kidzdoc's 12 narrative non-fiction books in 2012

I'm also active in these groups, but I don't have individual threads there:
African/African American Literature (I probably will create a thread here soon)
Author Theme Reads
Nabokov!
New Yorker magazine support group
Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge (read one book by Patrick White in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1912)
Reading Globally

Here's my year end summary for 2011:

Total books read: 166 (the most number of books I've read in a year)
Fiction: 108
Nonfiction: 44
Poetry: 14

TBR* books read in 2011: 39 (*using avaland's definition of a book purchased at least 6 months ago)
New books read in 2011: 127 (books read within 6 months of the date of purchase)
New books added to Mt TBR in 2011: >360 (not counting books purchased during the last week of the year, and Kindle books that I haven't yet added to my LT library)
Avaland TBR score: 147 out of 180 (critically ill, in need of intensive care and/or a lobotomy)

Number left on TBR pile: TNTC (a medical abbreviation for "too numerous to count")

Male authors: 115 (69%)
Female authors: 47 (28%)
Other: 4 (two books of anthologies, two art books with multiple contributors) (3%)

Authors new to me: 112 (too many to list here!)
More than 1 work by an author (15):
4 books: Amélie Nothomb, Mario Vargas Llosa
3 books: Javier Cercas, Tove Jansson, Michael Ondaatje
2 books: Julian Barnes, Jean Echenoz, Damon Galgut, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Joy Harjo, Elias Khoury, Hisham Matar, Amos Oz, José Saramago, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Country of origin:
United States: 45
Britain: 30
France: 7
Peru: 5
Spain: 5
Sri Lanka: 5
Belgium: 4
Canada: 4
India: 4
Egypt: 3
Finland: 3
Japan: 3
Portugal, South Africa, Lebanon, Algeria, Colombia, Libya, Palestine, Tanzania, Barbados, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, Kenya: 2
Togo, Argentina, Iran, Germany, Norway, Santa Lucia, Martinique, Haiti, China, Jamaica, Argentina, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Wales: 1

Favorite books of the year:

Fiction:
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (favorite novel published in 2011)
The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa (favorite novel of the year)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel
Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh

Nonfiction:
The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt
Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips (favorite nonfiction book of the year)
Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care by Augustus A. White III, M.D.
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey by Izzeldin Abuelaish
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox by Gareth Williams
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son by Ian Brown
Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray

Poetry:
I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston (favorite work of poetry of the year)
The Broken Word by Adam Foulds

Least favorite books of the year:
No More Mr. Nice Guy by Howard Jacobson
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

Favorite author of the year: Amos Oz
Least favorite author of the year: Stella Rimington, for being the worst Booker Prize chair of judges in the award's history

Best book cover: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes



Worst book cover: The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens



Analysis soon.

A tentative list of 75 TBR books that I intend to read in 2012 (subject to extensive change):

Patrick White, The Vivisector {Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge}
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, A Mind at Peace {Reading Globally 1Q}
Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence {Reading Globally 1Q}
Orhan Pamuk, Snow {Reading Globally 1Q}
Yashar Kemal, Memed, My Hawk {Reading Globally 1Q}

Stefan Zweig, Beware of Pity {Reading Globally Classics}
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita {Reading Globally Classics}
Louis Couperus, Eline Vere {Reading Globally Classics}
Edward Said, Orientalism {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
Naguib Mahfouz, The Cairo Trilogy {Reading Globally 3rd Q}

David Grossman, To the End of the Land {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
A.B. Yehoshua, Friendly Fire {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
Amos Oz, My Michael {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
Amos Oz, The Same Sea {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost

Nicola Barker, Darkmans
Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (re-read)
Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Natsume Soseki, Kokoro
Natsume Soseki, The Three-Cornered World
Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters
Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun (re-read) {Reading Globally 3rd Q}
Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel {Reading Globally 2nd Q}

Ma Jian, Beijing Coma {Reading Globally 4th Q}
Mo Yan, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out {Reading Globally 4th Q}
Jiang Rong, Wolf Totem {Reading Globally 4th Q}
Ruiyan Yu, The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai {Reading Globally 4th Q}
J.G. Farrell, The Singapore Grip

Jean Echenoz, I’m Off + One Year
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Paradise
Edward St Aubyn, Some Hope
Andrew Miller, Pure
Roy Porter, Madmen

Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns
Edward Said, Out of Place

Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic
Tony Gould, A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World
Alice LaPlante, Turn of Mind {2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize winner}
Ann Patchett, State of Wonder {2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize finalist}
Louisa Young, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You {2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize finalist}

Helen Dunmore, The Siege {Orange January/July}
Helen Dunmore, The Betrayal {Orange January/July}
Jane Harris, Gillespie and I
Abraham Verghese, The Tennis Partner
Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid {Reading Globally 3rdQ}

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita {Nabokov in 2012}
Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin {Nabokov in 2012}
Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire {Nabokov in 2012}
Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory {Nabokov in 2012}
Simon Mawer, Mendel’s Dwarf

Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
Colson Whitehead, Sag Harbor
Colson Whitehead, Zone One
Victor LaValle, Big Machine
Ernesto Sabato, The Tunnel

Roma Tearne, Mosquito
Kamila Shamsie, Broken Verses
James Kelman, How Late It Was, How Late
William Trevor, Selected Stories
Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule

Karen Russell, Swamplandia! {Orange January/July}
Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal {Orange January/July}
Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin {Orange January/July}
Rose Tremain, The Road Home {Orange January/July}
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus {Orange January/July}

Patricia Grace, Dogside Story
Keri Hulme, The Bone People
Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
Touré, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? What it Means to Be Black Now
José Donoso, The Lizard’s Tale

A list of goals for 2012:

stared

f? Have starred you, and happy new year! (I really hope you've finished... I'm going to wait to post this for another few minutes.) Loved the Mt TBR pics.

>7 BBGirl55: Welcome, Bryony! A toast to the first person who visited my new thread in 2012:



>8 cushlareads: Hi, Cushla! Happy New Year to you, too. It will take me a few days to set up my 2012 thread with tickers and/or counters, and figure out how I want to structure it. So, I thought I'd give myself enough room by creating empty messages beforehand.

Hi there, Darryl... I was watching the threads like a hawk, waiting for you to set yours up. Ye gods, man, I take it you have a spreadsheet listing all the books in your TBR piles? But when you do decide to read one of them, how do you find them?!

I'm coming over to YOUR house when i run out of books to read in mine!

thank you for the toast!

Darryl- I love your end of the year book review! Excellent job! I don't think we followed each other that much this year but that can always be remedied.
Wow, that TBR stack is.....intimidating! A 1,000! Yikes!

Happy New Year!

BTW- I have 2 NF titles going right now and both have been terrific!

Hey Darryl, good luck with the TBR stacks this year. Whether or not you whittle down your mountain, I'm certain you will have fun making the attempt.

Thanks for not laughing at my absurdly unattainable New Year's resolutions.

That made me laugh out loud Darryl! So I guess I'm off to a bad start!

Speaking of bad starts... I've managed to convince myself 95% that I can't live without the NYRB Book Club. I have a few hours to decide which way that remaining 5% will go. Speaking of stats and stuff, how did you get yours? I know where to get stats on the overall collections, but how do you get them for just this year?

Got you starred, of course.

eta: is that really a photo of your tbr Darryl? If it is, how on earth are you meant to get at any book below the first 10 or 20 up top? ... (shelves, maybe? says she in a whisper)

Hi Darryl! I had to de-lurk to say that the opening of your thread has got to be one of the funniest and organized that I've seen so far. Your MOUNT TBR stack definitely looks scary, but I'm envious at the same time?? Nothing gets me more than stacks and stacks of unread books that threaten to bury you in a heap of paper and ink!
Hopefully you can reach your unattainable goal of reading more than your purchase!

De-lurking and de-cloaking, too (sorry for the Star Trek reference). Your thread looks great, Darryl. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year. Darryl, love how you are making your 2012 priorities very clear to all of us.

Hi Darryl! Wishing you a wonderful New Year and much success in your absurdly unattainable New Year's resolutions.

I would cry if I couldn't buy new books for a whole year, but I only have a few hundred unread so I'm good for now ;)

That's a very impressive stack, Darryl. Here's to your avowed goal of reading at least a few more of them before they breed! Happy New Year!

>10 cameling: Ye gods, man, I take it you have a spreadsheet listing all the books in your TBR piles? But when you do decide to read one of them, how do you find them?!

I don't have a TBR spreadsheet, although I probably should make one (or more). I use my LT library to tell me if I have a book or not, although I can generally remember which books I've purchased recently (in the past 5-7 years). I still have a couple of hundred older books in boxes that I haven't categorized, though.

I'm coming over to YOUR house when i run out of books to read in mine!

You're more than welcome to visit. However, you'll need to bring a hard hat and a pickaxe before you'll be permitted to enter.

>11 BBGirl55: You're welcome, Bryony!

>12 msf59: Happy New Year, Mark! I followed your thread sporadically over the year, and lurked more than I commented on your posts. I'll certainly follow your Non-Fiction Challenge thread very closely, and attempt to keep up with your 75 Books thread as best I can. BTW, did you have the most threads of any of the 75ers last year?

Yes, my TBR pile is intimidating, and overwhelming.

I've temporarily put aside The Warmth of Other Suns, and I've started A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World by Tony Gould as my first nonfiction book of the year, mainly because I want to read more books about medicine and health for the Medicine group that I'm hoping to revive this year. Everyone with an interest in this topic is welcome to participate!

>13 mckait: Happy New Year, Kath! Are you working on your 2012 spreadsheet? ;-)

>14 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. I think it will be fun, especially since I'll be doing it in the context of several other members of the 75 Books and Club Read groups. Needless to say, I have plenty of TBR books that I'm very eager to read, not including the books that I'll receive in the mail from Amazon, the Strand and Alibris next week, and from my NYRB Book Club subscription throughout the year.

>15 Smiler69: Bad Ilana! Already you've failed to honor my request, and it isn't New Year's Day yet! ;-)

I've managed to convince myself 95% that I can't live without the NYRB Book Club. I have a few hours to decide which way that remaining 5% will go.

I thought about joining this club practically every day after I saw the list of forthcoming NYRB Classic titles and learned about the 6- and 12-month offer, so this wasn't a rash decision for me, and I'm very glad that I've decided to subscribe. I feel a little badly that I won't renew my Archipelago subscription next year, but I'll certainly buy at least a couple of the 2012 books, and I may renew my subscription in 2013 if their titles are more appealing to me.

Is that really a photo of your tbr Darryl? If it is, how on earth are you meant to get at any book below the first 10 or 20 up top?

Yes, that is a portion of my unshelved books, including ones I've read and ones I haven't gotten to yet. The books that I've read are mainly behind the ones I haven't read and have recently purchased; the others are mainly in bookshelves. Usually I can find a TBR book pretty easily, but sometimes I have to break out the pickaxe and hard hat to excavate TBR treasure.

(shelves, maybe? says she in a whisper)

Yes. I'm planning to go to my local IKEA (which, fortunately is about a mile from where I live) to purchase new shelves after the Christmas rush has died down, possibly as early as next weekend, and no later than the end of the month, before I leave for frigid Wisconsin to visit my best friends.

>16 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie! I did think about what I wanted to post in the opening message in my first thread of 2012, and I created a 2012 Club Read thread a couple of weeks ago with a similar theme, kidzdoc's Assault on Mount TBR in 2012.

Sometime tomorrow I'll post links to my other threads, and the challenges and groups I'm active in at the top of this thread.

>17 jnwelch: Happy New Year, Joe! I hope that I can meet you, Mark, Linda, Kerri and some of the other Chicagoland 75ers sometime in the near future. A good friend of mine is a pediatrician in town, and it's been awhile since I've visited her there.

>18 avatiakh: Happy New Year, Kerry! This is just a start; I will be participating in several challenges and groups this year, including the Booker Prize group that I created last year, and the Medicine group. I'll need to be much more organized if I'm going to meet the goals I've set for myself. I'm also hoping to encourage some of my partners and other doctors and nurses I know well who are avid readers to join LT, and participate in the Medicine group, if nothing else.

BTW, I just went to the Groups tab to find the link for the Booker Prize group, and this 50 year old guy was pleased that LT suggested that I join the 30-something LibraryThingers group.

>19 ChelleBearss: Happy New Year, Chelle! I definitely won't stop buying books in 2012, but even if I did, I have more than enough books already that I can't wait to read.

I'm not going to any New Year's Eve parties tonight; most of my friends here have young families, half of my group is working this weekend, and most of the other half is either out of town or, like me, is resting in preparation to go back to work on Monday. I'll spend most of the last 3 hours of the New Year reading, and then attempt to catch up on the other 2012 threads tomorrow morning.

Happy new year!!

(Have you heard of these new inventions called BOOKSHELVES??)

I thought about joining this club practically every day after I saw the list of forthcoming NYRB Classic titles and learned about the 6- and 12-month offer, so this wasn't a rash decision for me, and I'm very glad that I've decided to subscribe.

Well, I didn't realize there was this club when I saw that list of titles (shortly after you posted it on your former thread), and if I had, then I would certainly have thought about it every day since too, so, now that I'm leaning 98% towards subscribing, I'm thinking it would't be a rash decision on my part either! ;-)

eta: well that settles it. I first went to check the average prices of the NYRB titles on BookDepository and many were lower than the average price of $12.50 you get with the book club deal. But the real clincher is shipping: $144.00 to Canada and Mexico. So I'll be opting for "worldwide free shipping" BD. I'll preorder the titles I'm interested in for good measure, so they'll count as 2011 books and therefore "off the shelf" reads! :-D

Here you are at last. Good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, dear Darryl!
I"m bringing a star and a hope that 2012 bests 2011 in wonderful books and conversation!

Happy New Year Darryl! The visuals at the top of your thread are a hoot.

OMG....sorry Darryl...I almost got crushed by that pile of books above. I'm not even going to mention "unattainable New Year's resolutions." I mean really, why would I.

My word Darryl one day not yet even halfway through and you have given plenty to mull over.

Very thorough summary of your reading I must say. Did pip you on the Avaland score with a 150 and buying 837 books last year probably helped me do so! I also have insufficient shelving Darryl but your need does look slightly more pressing than mine. I do have a spreadsheet of TBR books in my place in KL but as I continue to rifle through my boxed and stored possessions I keep finding things to add!

Look forward to trying to reduce our four figure owned TBR piles together this year. Happy new year Darryl - last year was a pleasure and a privilege making your acquaintance.

Wow, that is an impressive mountain of books (and I mean the real one!) -- like others have suggested, it makes me want to invite myself over for a cup of tea just to peruse that library!! Oh, and to chat with you, too, of course! :-)

I'm firmly resisting the very tempting NYRB Club, telling myself that I can get those books at my local booksellers.... I don't need a book coming to my mailbox every month, not even one of those deliciously covered NYRB editions...... The forthcomings are very appealing, I must say.

*puts credit card in bowl of water in freezer until January 2*

Happy New Year and Happy New Reads, Darryl.

Hi Darryl, your amazing book pile makes me envious. So my new year resolution is to build a amazing pile of books myself.

Happy New Year, Darryl! Good luck with the resolution :)

Happy New Year! You gave me a real chuckle with the opening messages in your thread. I'm quite ... er ... impressed by that TBR pile.

Planned reads for January (and the groups I'm reading them for):

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 {Author Theme Reads}
Shusaku Endo, Volcano {Author Theme Reads} - completed
Natsume Soseki, Botchan (Master Darling) (tbr) {Author Theme Reads} - completed
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, A Mind at Peace (tbr) {Reading Globally} - reading
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns (tbr) {Non-Fiction Challenge} - reading
Tony Gould, A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World (tbr) {Non-Fiction Challenge/Medicine} - completed
Percival Everett, Erasure {African/African American Literature}
Karen Russell, Swamplandia! (tbr) {Orange January} - completed
Nicole Krauss, Great House (tbr) {Orange January}
Ellie Malet Spradbery, False Friends: Book Two {October LT Early Reviewer book} - completed

I will be curious to see what you think of Volcano, Darryl. I loved Silence.

>20 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy; Happy New Year to you and Jim!

>22 Chatterbox: Happy New Year, Suz! As I mentioned in message #21, I'll go to my local IKEA to shop for bookshelves very soon.

>23 Smiler69: Wow...so it will cost nearly as much to ship the books as the cost of the books themselves? Fuggedaboutit. I'll be curious to see which of the forthcoming NYRB Classics you buy.

>24 richardderus: I wouldn't miss this group for anything. Well, almost anything...

>25 LizzieD: Happy New Year to you too, Peggy! I think that 2012 will be a better reading year, although I don't know if I'll reach or exceed last year's total. I'll shoot for 150 (75 x 2), but my bigger goal will be to decrease my total number of TBR books over the year. I'll create a spreadsheet to help me in that purpose over the next week or two.

>26 arubabookwoman: Happy New Year, Deborah! I thought about my opening message for quite a while (which is also why I waited to create a 2012 thread), so I'm glad that you and others liked it.

BTW, I've started to fill in some of the empty messages, and I should complete most of this later
>27 brenzi: That photo represents about half of my unshelved books, and maybe ¼ of my overall collection. I also intend to give away or sell some of the books I no longer wish to keep, which I'll also tally on a spreadsheet.

As George Bush said, I'm "focused like a laser beam" on my TBR reduction plan.

>28 PaulCranswick: Welcome, Paul. Cripes, you bought more than twice as many books as I did! What penance did you earn from SWMBO? The TBR reduction plan will be a multi-year effort, and some belt tightening will be required. In the spring, if not sooner, I'll go through the piles and get rid of the books that I will almost certainly not read in the foreseeable future, including those I haven't read yet (e.g., The Love Wife by Gish Jen) and the unread books I'll probably never look at again (e.g., A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne).

>29 EBT1002: Hmph. I get the impression that you are more interested in my books than in chatting with me, Ellen. ;-)

Needless to say, the list of Forthcoming NYRB Classics was too good for me to pass up. The only potential downside (other than the outlay of cash and the addition to my TBR pile) is that NYRB will choose which book is sent to subscribers every month. There are some books that I want more than others, and hopefully I'll receive those preferentially, if more than one book is published in a month.

>30 mausergem: So you're on the anti-TBR reduction plan, eh Gautam? I'm glad that you're joining us here again this year, and I look forward to seeing you in the Medicine group.

>32 lauralkeet: I'm quite ... er ... impressed by that TBR pile.

Impressed is one word to describe it, although it seems as though you have another one in mind. ;-)

>31 alcottacre: Happy New Year, Stasia! And thanks for the encouragement. It will help that several other 75ers (especially Caroline and Paul) and Club Readers (particularly Cait (Cait86) and Joyce (Nickelini)) have also expressed a strong desire to reduce their piles of unread books.

>34 alcottacre: I'm about 1/3 of the way through Volcano, and I'm enjoying it so far; I should finish it by this afternoon. I'll read 6 or more books by Shusaku Endo this year, as he is the major author for the 2012 Author Theme Reads group. I read The Sea and Poison last year, which is the only book by Endo that I've read, and I received Silence as a Christmas gift from my best friends last month. The minor authors in the group (one author per quarter) are Natsume Soseki, Kobo Abe, Ryu Murakami and Yukio Mishima, and I plan to read at least three of each of their books, including Kokoro and Botchan (Master Darling) by Soseki this month. There is also a 1Q84 Group Read that starts this month, and I'll start reading it after I finish Volcano today. Finally, we'll be reading books by other Japanese authors throughout the year, and I'll read some of the books that I've purchased recently, particularly The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe.

I need to get to 1Q84 some time this year. I know my local library has it, but I suspect it will be one I need to read between semester breaks, not while I am actually doing any schoolwork.

I know you can read more than you buy, Darryl. I did it, so you can too.

Happy New Year, Darryl! Wishing you all the best in 2012!

I so enjoy your intelligent and humorous thread and look forward to chipping away at my tipping tower as you work through yours. I fear, but not really, adding more to my wishlist with every visit I make.

Love your Mount TBR! Mine is mostly hidden electronically, but it's still out there. I think the best way to reduce it is just not to buy things *one day at a time*. For me, this has meant not buying anything in the 12 Days of Kindle Sale for all the days it's been running so far. This gives me a sense of achievement (OK, smugness) every single day :-) I can't say I won't buy anything tomorrow (although it has to be unlikely on the basis of their current lame offerings) but *today* I haven't. So far. Moving away from the computer now in case I'm tempted to check it again.

Ah, here you are!

Happy New Year on this thread too! (I'll leave NF, Medicine, etc. to their own devices...)

Morning Darryl- I think there were a couple ahead of me, on the most Threads of the year. LOL. I really can't believe I had that many. Funny, my 1st year on the 50 Challenge, one lasted me the whole year.
I started an excellent memoir called House of Prayer No. 2, The writing is stunning. This might be one, you might like. I would also like to get to The Warmth of Other Suns in the next month or so.

Happy New Year Darryl!

You are an inspiration - as I have about 450 books that I own but have not read. I did do some major purging of books last year, but didn't make much of a dent as far as reading from TBR and not buying new.

Since I have 186 books on my wish list - and I so want to read some of the books coming out in 2012, I am vowing to not buy anything in January. If I keep to that, maybe I will add February...

It is thanks to you that I found one of my favorite reads of 2011 - The Memory Chalet, and of course, if I couldn't bring a new book into the house, I wouldn't have experienced it.

But we don't agree on everything - I wasn't such a fan of The Sense of an Ending. I must have missed something there.

I look forward to your take on Turn of Mind.

Finally, where in WI are you headed? I live in Milwaukee. We haven't had a frigid winter yet - no snow yet this season. But I am sure it is coming.

Take care, and happy reading in 2012.
Nancy

Happy New Year, Darryl! Hope 2012 is full of blessings for you. You're right: I don't feel so bad about my humble little tbr shelves after seeing yours. When you get to the point where you won't live long enough to read them all, does an alarm go off? xo

Happy New Year, Darryl. I hope it is a great year for you, both reading and otherwise.

As always, I'm impressed by how you think about your reading in advance (post 5), something I do in only the most general and haphazard way. Many of the books on that list are new to me, although I have read and loved some (and read and not loved others), and many of those look intriguing; I also have hopes of reading some of the books on your list which are on my own TBR mountain.

Oh, and when I finish going through all the threads (everyone was sure busy on LT last night!), I'm off to the Book Culture 20% off sale . . .

>37 alcottacre: 1Q84 is a chunkster as you know, Stasia. My copy has 925 pages of smaller than normal print, so I'll probably still be reading it in February.

Thanks for the encouragement! As long as I keep my goal in mind throughout the year, instead of waiting until the summer as I did last year, I'm confident that I can achieve it.

>38 Carmenere: Happy New Year, Lynda! And thanks for the kind compliments and support.

>39 susanj67: Thanks, Susan! I engaged in a book buying frenzy over the last week of the year, after going over two months with only one book purchase, a novel that a good friend of mine wrote and published early last month. I've acquired all of the books I know I'll want to read for different challenges this year, so my purchases for the year should be limited to "must read" books, such as the new novel by Mario Vargas Llosa and Hilary Mantel's sequel to Wolf Hall, and ones I'll want to read for certain literary prizes, particularly the Booker, Orange and Wellcome Trust Book Prizes. I'd love to be able to limit myself to no more than 50 book purchases this year, and I'll do my best to only buy those books that I intend to read this year.

Let's see...is 50 a realistic number? All 13 Booker Dozen books, 6-8 Orange Prize books, and 6 books from the Wellcome Trust Prize shortlist; that's 25-27 books. So, if I limit myself to 15-20 "must read" books that aren't finalists for any of the other literary prizes I closely follow, I should be in good shape (although it won't be easy!).

>40 qebo: Hi, qebo! I seem to be following you on different threads in different groups.

>41 msf59: Good morning, and Happy New Year to you, Mark! I don't think I've visited your 2012 thread yet, mainly because I'm working from the bottom up, and yours keeps getting pushed to the top of the list. I remember not that long ago that you wondered if you could hang with the "big dogs"; well, you've proven you can not only hang with them, but you've also become one of the biggest of them! Well done, my friend.

I look forward to your comments about House of Prayer No. 2. I'll read The Warmth of Other Suns soon, possibly as early as next week depending on how much reading I get done during the week.

>42 alphaorder: Happy New Year to you too, Nancy! And thanks for your very kind comments. Before I purchase any book this year, I will ask myself, "Are you going to read this in 2012?" If the answer is definitely yes, then I'll consider buying it; otherwise it makes no sense for me to purchase it. I do have a $50 gift card for Barnes & Noble that I received for Christmas, so I'll use it to buy my first 2-3 "must read" books of the year.

I'm glad that you enjoyed The Memory Chalet. That reminds me; I have several other books by Tony Judt that I'm eager to read, and I don't think I included any of them in my list of TBR books for 2012.

You weren't alone in not loving The Sense of an Ending amongst the members of this group who read it. I'll read it again early this year, and attempt to explain why it had such a strong influence on me.

I'm looking forward to reading Turn of Mind, the winner of last year's Wellcome Trust Book Prize, the British award that "celebrates medicine in literature". I've read three of the shortlisted books from 2011 already, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddharta Mukherjee (outstanding), Nemesis by Philip Roth (good), and The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso (very good), and I own the other two shortlisted books besides Turn of Mind, namely State of Wonder by Ann Patchett and My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, which I'll read early this year. Unlike the Booker and Orange Prizes, the Wellcome Trust Book Prize doesn't have a longlist, so no other books were nominated for the award. I'll try to read most of the other shortlisted books from 2009 and 2010 over the next year or two; I have all but two of them, I think.

My best friends live in Middleton, which is the first town west of Madison. Dave and I were classmates in medical school, and he is a pediatric neurologist at UW. I've spent the last 4-5 New Years with them (him, his wife and their two young children), including last year, when we were all snuggled under blankets reading contently.

I'm sad that Midwest Airlines was taken over by Frontier. I loved flying Midwest from Atlanta to Milwaukee (with its roomy seats on its 717s and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies), and taking a short flight on a Midwest Connect puddle jumper from there to Madison. Frontier doesn't offer direct service between Atlanta and Milwaukee, unfortunately.

Oh, I like the way you are thinking about book purchases. I am going to do that too - in that way, my book purchases should be WAY down, and then when I am ready to read the book, perhaps it will be out in paper!

I am so sad about Midwest too. Sure makes travel more difficult - and more uncomfortable - for those of us who live in MKE. I guess we were spoiled.

Happy reading!

>43 tiffin: When you get to the point where you won't live long enough to read them all, does an alarm go off?

So that's what that persistent beeping sound was. Damn.

>44 rebeccanyc: Happy New Year to you too, Rebecca! I'm admittedly a bit surprised that many of the books on my TBR list are new to you, but at least 6-8 of them were books I bought in London last summer that may not have been published in the US yet, e.g. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris and Pure by Andrew Miller. (Hmm...I need to fix those touchstones.) I'm very eager to see what you're planning to read for the Reading Globally and Author Theme Reads challenges.

I'm off to the Book Culture 20% off sale

Book Culture is a dangerous place, more so than the Strand, I think, and that 20% off sale, which I've gone to once or twice, is deadly to anyone's plans to limit their book purchases. I went there this spring with a good friend of mine who lives near the U.N., and came out with three bags' worth of books, which I could barely carry. I should probably avoid going there this year.

Just amazing Darryl! You are just amazing.

Thanks for putting that photo of your TBR books- I can use it to show my wife anytime she complains about my buying too many books and letting them pile-up on the floor. I can tell her "Dear, you could be married to Darry, see?l!"

Happy New Year and look forward to reading your thread (that I should count as a book at the end of the year since it's so extensive)

Fabulous thread, Darryl! Happy New Year! And happy reading, shelving, cataloguing, buying, reviewing ...

eta: you're not yet in the threadbook, hint, hint

#48 "Dear, you could be married to Darry, see?l!"

I love it! I used the photo as a means to convince my hubby to agree to four new bookcases. "After all, we don't want to end up like Darryl, do we dear?"

Happy New Year, Darryl! See what a wonderful tool that photo is turning out to be?

Hi Darryl, and Happy New Year! I love your first few posts, especially your picture of (part of) your TBR stacks; I love looking at others' bookshelves! One thing I never learned how to do was use spreadsheets - never had to in college as an English major - but I'd like to this year. You're so organized! I'm envious!

Good luck to you on all of your challenges, especially on hacking away at Mt. TBR, and hopefully this year I can do a better job at keeping up with you. Remind me - there isn't a full time, 6-figure job to read and keep up with LT, is there? And Nancy is right - no snow in Milwaukee, it's barely been lower than the high 20's, temp-wise - it's hardly like a normal Wisconsin winter!

>46 alphaorder: I do prefer hardback books, particularly for those titles that I want to keep. I also like sharing my books with my partners at work, and the HBs last longer than the PBs if I do that.

Midwest was the #1 airline that served General Mitchell Airport, right? Has Frontier completely replaced it, or are there less flights out of MKE that there were a year or two ago?

>48 xieouyang: I can tell her "Dear, you could be married to Darryl, see?l!

Uh oh. I wonder if this explains why I'm still single?

>49 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! And thanks also for the reminder about the threadbook; I've just post a link to this thread there.

>50 labfs39: Yeah, I really need to shop for bookshelves soon...

>51 LauraBrook: Happy New Year, Laura! I'm much more adept at creating Word and Power Point documents than I am at creating Excel spreadsheets, so I'll have a bit of a learning curve when I create spreadsheets for my library and my reading plans.

I just checked the forecast for Madison, and, like here, the warm temperatures will be a thing of the past starting tonight. It will only get up to 17 degrees there tomorrow, and the low will be 4 degrees, which seems about right.

This doesn't seem like an appropriate thing to mention, given the talk of TBR reduction plans, but a member of the staff at Foyles Bookshop in London posted a blog earlier today that lists upcoming books for the first half of 2012:

Coming soon to a bookshop near you

Several of the books look interesting, but only two are "must reads" for me: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, which will be released in the UK in May, and The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa, which will be published in June.

#53: I'm really looking forward to the new Hilary Mantel too.

happy new year, Darryl! my library's got The war of the end of the world by Mario Vargas Llosa so I'm thinking about reading it in february. does it have any magic realism in it?

I'm intrigued by your reference to the Author Themed Reads, Darryl. Are you concentrating mainly on Japanese authors for the year? I might be tempted to participate since I have a fair number of Japanese authors in my TBR Tower that I would like an impetus to get to sooner rather than later. Can you point me to the group link, please?

Here is a list from The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/12/15-books-to-look-forwar...

And David Abrams monthly blog post about upcoming books

http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/search/label/Front%20Porch%20Books?m=0

Hope I am not tempting you Darryl!

>54 susanj67: I loved Wolf Hall, and I'm very eager to read A Place of Greater Safety, which I'll probably read before I pick up Bring Up the Bodies.

>55 GCPLreader: Happy New Year, Jenny! No, The War of the End of the World does not have any magic realism in it, and MVL doesn't use this technique often, if at all (I've read most of his novels, and I can't think of any that include it).

>56 cameling: I posted the groups, threads and challenges that I'll be participating in this year, for easy reference, but I didn't do that until this morning. Here's a link to the Author Theme Reads group. The threads that are most applicable at the moment are Preparing for 2012!, which lists the major and mini authors for the year, and the 1Q84 Group Read. There will definitely be author and book specific threads that will appear soon.

>57 alphaorder: Several of those books look good, but none except Bring Up the Bodies are "must reads" at the moment. I was glad to see that it will be released on May 19 in the US, so we who live on this side of the pond won't have to wait long to get it.

Thanks for the link, Darryl. Yup, I think I'm going to jump in with both feet. I'm so glad there's a GR on IQ84 because the book keeps staring at me from my shelf and I do want to read it. So I'll start it tomorrow I think, and plan on finishing it (fingers crossed) before Jan 9 when I'm off to .... Tokyo. How apropos is that?!

I've got you starred and look forward to another year of your reading adventures!

I've scrolled through nearly sixty posts looking for a review of A Disease Apart; you've had about fourteen hours of 2012 to read it - get on that, will you? ;)

Welcome back!

Holy cow, Daryl! I don't think there are enough book shelves in the world for that mountain!!

Well, here's to your year of moving mountains in 2012! Cheers!

Some great reads lined up for January! I'll definitely be back to check out what you think of them since we do have a couple of shared reads in common. :)
I got 1Q84 as a Christmas gift this year, but the sheer size is beyond daunting. It is so tempting to read it now since everyone is reading it, but I have The Wind-up Bird Chronicle that is sitting on my shelves and shooting daggers my way...better read that first!

>60 cameling: You're welcome, Caroline. I'll start 1Q84 either tonight, after I finish Volcano and False Friends: Book Two, or tomorrow. I'll probably read it alongside another January read, so I won't finish it before the end of the month, at the earliest. I hope that you're able to finish it by January 9; I'll be impressed if you do!

Nice comeback win by the Patriots today. I'm sure you're as upset by the Jets' spectacular fall from grace as I am (Hey Rex, you can't win the Super Bowl if your team doesn't make the playoffs!). Borrowing your animated gif from last year:



The Eagles finished strong, with 4 straight wins after the loss to the Patriots. I'll be glued to the set in a couple of hours, when the Giants play the $&%^@!!! Cowboys for the NFC East Division title.



>61 DorsVenabili: Thanks, Kerri!

>62 London_StJ: I won't finish A Disease Apart until later this weekend, so my book report will be late. Sorry, Ms. Luxx.

*hangs head, awaits detention slip*

>63 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>64 tangledthread: I don't think there are enough book shelves in the world for that mountain!!

Right. I need to get rid of a couple of hundred books, and read 75 or more that are taking up space there before the end of the year. I'm on it!

>65 jolerie: Thanks, Valerie. I'm nearly finished with Volcano by Shusaku Endo, which is very good so far; I'll finish it in the next hour or so. BTW, I loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, the first novel I read by Haruki Murakami, and I may consider re-reading it later this year for the Author Theme Reads group.

As with >50 labfs39:, I showed your tbr piles to Himself as well, Darryl! He remained unswayed by my ploy to get more bookshelves. I guess I'll just have to ask for forgiveness and forget any permission angle. ;) Srsly, I've done three major purges in the last decade (over 2,000 cleared out). I'm trying to rein it in or trade in the ones I know I'll never read again. Are you planning to purge?

#35 Darryl, I've posted about my manic shopping spree on my thread just a little while ago. Just so you know, I blamed you for it. :-p

Also #53 is just cruel. Just... yeah, cruel.

Thanks for the link to the Foyle's blog, Darryl. Lots of good stuff there.

My Giants are looking pretty good so far! And if I have to hear any more about lil' Tony Womo's boo-boo, I am going to scream :)

>67 tiffin: Are you planning to purge?

Definitely. I think I can get rid of one or two hundred books, if not more, that are at the bottom of my TBR pile, or books I've already read that I won't read again.

>68 Smiler69: Just so you know, I blamed you for it.

I thought Laura was my biggest tormentor, now that Jenny (lunacat, not GCPLreader) has chosen to ignore my thread. I stand corrected.

The Giants lead the Cowboys 7-0, early in the 2nd quarter, and are driving for another score. It will be an especially great day if both of the Ryan brothers (Rex, the head coach of the Jets, and Rob, the defensive coordinator of the Cowboys; he's the pregnant one) are eliminated from the playoffs on the same day.

Yes! Touchdown Giants!!! It's now 14-0. Go Big Blue!

I'll be finished with Volcano shortly.

ETA: Alright! Another Giants fan.

Tony Romo is getting smacked around like a toy doll. Poor baby.

Might I just mention that the Packers are 15-1? :)

>67 tiffin: Are you planning to purge?

Definitely. I think I can get rid of one or two hundred books, if not more, that are at the bottom of my TBR pile, or books I've already read that I won't read again.

Can I be among the first line of people you send a PM containing a list of titles to? :-D

(just kidding, sorta)

>71 alphaorder: Might I just mention that the Packers are 15-1? :)

You could say that. You could also say that the Patriots were 18-0 when they faced the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. And we all know how that game turned out.



In other words, don't count your chickens before they are hatched! ;-)

*threatening to invoke the wrath of Caroline*

>72 Smiler69: Can I be among the first line of people you send a PM containing a list of titles to? :-D

In all seriousness: yes!

Darryl- I wish I could join you guys on the G.R. of IQ84. It would be a perfect setting for it but I don't even own the book yet. Sadly, shuffles away...

Hey, I got to watch the Bears finally win! But what a pathetic ending to such a promising start. Sad.

Mark - Congrats on your win. But sorry for your loss of playoff status.

I wish that my books were in as good order as yours. I sold some book club editions of science fiction books when I was in high school or college; I would never have reread them, but I still regret it.

Happy new year,

Robert

Happy New Year, Darryl!

Hello Darryl, just stopping in to star so I can keep track of how the TBR pile reduction goes. I think that one of the things I like best about having the e-reader is that it has relieved me of the tendency to buy/borrow a book the instant I see it and it "looks interesting". Knowing that it will be available the instant I'm actually read to sit down and read it is going ultimately to save me from piling up too many ahead of time.

Now if I could just stop taking home all the newbies from our library (to check them out of course LOL!) I might be able to get going on a pile reduction myself.

Happy reading.

Happy New Year Darryl!! I loved the extended intro up top and your TBR mountain made me laugh -- now I feel better about my small hill. : p The breadth of your reading is inspiring and congrats on your most book reads ever! Hope 2012 is a wonderful year for you. All my best and see you around!

Woo hoo! The Giants are the NFC East champions, after beating the Cowboys 31-14. They'll host Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs next weekend.

I finished Volcano by Shusaku Endo (4 stars), and False Friends: Book Two by Ellie Malet Spradbery (3½ stars); I'll review both books tomorrow, since it's nearly midnight.

>74 msf59: I'm sorry that you won't be joining us for the 1Q84 group read, Mark. However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else (maybe you?) decides to form another group to read it later this year.

I'm glad that the Bears won, but it was a bittersweet win after a promising start to the season. Hopefully the injured Bears can return to full strength next season, and challenge the Packers (and Lions?) for the NFC West title once again.

>76 Mr.Durick: My books are in approximate order; I certainly wouldn't call my library well ordered! Happy New Year to you too, Robert!

>77 tymfos: Happy New Year, Terri! Hopefully the Eagles will carry the momentum of their four game season ending winning streak into next year.

>78 tututhefirst: I think that one of the things I like best about having the e-reader is that it has relieved me of the tendency to buy/borrow a book the instant I see it and it "looks interesting". Knowing that it will be available the instant I'm actually read to sit down and read it is going ultimately to save me from piling up too many ahead of time.

Hmm. That's an interesting comment, Tina. I bought a Kindle in February (or March) of last year, and I had the opposite problem as you; it was all too easy for me to click that enticing, shiny yellow "Buy Now with 1-Click" button whenever I saw a book that interested me, regardless of whether I planned to read it soon or, usually, not. As I've demonstrated repeatedly, I don't have a lot of restraint when it comes to buying books (although I continue to live under the delusion that this year will be different!).

>79 Berly: Happy New Year, Kim! I hope that you have a productive and enjoyable year, as well.

Off to bed...good night everybody.

If you're focusing "like a laser" like GWB to reduce your tbr pile, I don't hold out much hope for your success.

*waving* as I pass through the threads, Darryl

Happy New Year, Darryl

Alan

I am not ignoring your thread!!

*Throws some truly dreadful books at Darryl to make it even more difficult for him to find what he wants*

So there

>70 kidzdoc:: I thought Laura was my biggest tormentor, ... I stand corrected.
HA HA HA! Ilana, I'm glad to have a partner in crime. And honestly, Darryl, I think this thread is filled with tormentors-to-be. :)

#80 - Good. I'm glad the Giants won. I was exhausted last night and fell asleep and was just about to check. I hate the Cowboys, even more than the Bears.

Oh Darryl, I don't know whether your tbr pile was good or bad for me to see, good because it makes me feel that I am not alone and, um, well, I look moderate beside you..... but bad for exactly the same reasons!!!!!!!

I wonder if we can help each other? The NYer support group has been an incredible help getting me caught up and making the whole biz more fun.... I certainly don't want a separate thread but we could be..... you know.... encouraging to one another. I HAVE to buy two books on the 5th of Jan as that is my thingaversary, oh poor me!, but after THAT, well........ Sooooo tell me what you are reading off your tbr shelves? I have two going..... I'm afraid to count my tbrs, but I might later today, just so I can't kid myself! Before LT I generally had something around 50 books waiting ..... sigh.

I HAVE to buy two books on the 5th of Jan as that is my thingaversary
I've heard rumors about this --- is the rule that one must buy the number of books corresponding to the number of years one has been an addict a member?

#88: It is your Thingaversary years + 1, Ellen. You must make sure you have the 'one to grow on.'

OH BOY! January 20, I have a date at the bookstore to buy two books. Thanks, Stasia!
Darryl, thanks for letting us have a little chat on your thread. xo

Ah! I missed my Thingaversary!! Course now that I know the etiquette, I can go buy four more books. Thanks guys!!

the Patriots were 18-0 when they faced the Giants in Super Bowl XLII. And we all know how that game turned out.

Hey! Who's bringing up that blight on our record! Don't make me come out there and smack you with a smoked sturgeon, Darryl!

On a lighter note ... and only because I've just had a delightfully decadent lunch, I've started 1Q84 and I'm really liking it so far ... even if I think I've sprained my left wrist catching it when it fell off the table this morning.

OK, what is even more irrational than the stacks of books is that only two days into the new year, you have 92 messages on this thread...

Re the Foyles blog, there are some intriguing-looking books there. I may opt for the new William Boyd, although his Nat Tate was one of the most infuriating and anger-inducing books I "read" last year. "A Division of the Light" looks interesting; I spotted The Bellwether Revivals on NetGalleys, but was rejected (I think because I requested the Canadian edition...) I'll almost certainly get The Child Who, as I've heard some advance buzz about it. I've got an ARC of The Snow Child, if I can find it... The Hilary Mantel novel is a must, I may spring for "Ignorance" by Michele Roberts and maybe even the Emylia Hall novel, which I'm willing to bet will end up an Orange nominee. And probably the Vargas Llosa, since I'm probably related to Sir Roger Casement, and he's a character who has always fascinated me. The theory is that he was probably hung not for being a traitor but because he was a homosexual traitor -- and he went from public hero (he was one of the people who revealed publicly just what was going on in the Congo under King Leopold's reign of terror) to public opprobrium in double-quick time.

Now off to find a non-fiction list... *grin*

Re the Thingaversary rule: six books in February...oh crumb, I don't know about that.

#90: Have fun, Ellen!

Wow...today was a very busy and long day at work, with lots of sick babies infected with RSV, a respiratory virus that causes an infection of the smallest airways that is known as bronchiolitis. I had to send two of the babies I was caring for to our PICU (pediatric intensive care unit), as they were developing respiratory failure despite our best efforts. The respiratory therapists were running around like crazed rabbits today, doing their best to take care of the sick little ones, and one of them (who has asthma) was so out of breath this afternoon that she needed a breathing treatment herself. This is the middle of RSV season (which typically runs from November to April, and peaks in December and January), but practically all of us feel that this is the worst season we've had in many years, with lots of hospital admissions and kids that are sicker than usual. On top of that, we had our first documented case of influenza on Friday, so we'll start to see patients with the flu in the next week or two.

>81 arubabookwoman: It was George Bush, not Dubya, who made the "focus like a laser beam" comment about creating more jobs in his campaign speeches during the 1992 presidential election. I made that comment in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, since he didn't win the election that year (sorry for my quirky sense of humor).

>82 alcottacre: *waves at Stasia*

>83 TheTortoise: Happy New Year to you as well, Alan!

>84 lunacat: There's my friend Jenny! I knew you would show up if I referred to you by name.

>85 lauralkeet: I think this thread is filled with tormentors-to-be. :)

Definitely. I can't seem to stay out of trouble at work, either. One of my favorite nurses in the hospital smacked me and gave me evil looks after I told her, with a smirk, that her alma mater, the University of Georgia, had lost its big lead in this afternoon's football game against Michigan State, a game that State would ultimately win in triple overtime, 33-30. She did give me a big hug afterward, so it was worth it.

>86 DorsVenabili: I hate the Cowboys, even more than the Bears.

I hate the Cowboys more than any other professional or collegiate team. Any day the Cowboys lose is a great day, but one in which they lose to one of my favorite teams (Giants or Eagles) and, as a result, are eliminated from the playoffs is one of indescribable bliss. I hold no grudge against the Bears, Packers, Patriots, or practically any other NFL team.

Speaking of exhuasted, I'm all but falling asleep typing this. I didn't sleep well the past two nights, and a crazy busy 12 hour day at work has me struggling to keep my eyes open.

>87 sibylline: Sooooo tell me what you are reading off your tbr shelves?

A Disease Apart is the main TBR book I'm reading now; I bought it in 2007 from the now defunct San Francisco bookstore A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books.

Ugh. I need to go to sleep. I'll catch up with other posts sometime tomorrow...

Sorry to hear that it is a bad season for respiratory problems. I pray the children will recover quickly.

Hi Darryl, sounds like you had quite a lot going on at work today! I don't know how you managed to cope emotionally with the sight of all these sick babies. But as I've said before, I'm sure glad there are people like you to help where it's most needed. No wonder you need some *serious* downtime though. And a book addiction is by far probably the least disruptive addiction one can have, barring the risk of being buried alive by toppling book piles, of course.

Did you choose to ignore my post way back up there in #72? And well you should, since I don't expect you to send out so many books. But I'm shameless, so I had to ask anyway.

I don't expect you'll be joining us for the Steinbeckathon yourself Darryl, (though if you'd like to you are of course more than welcome), but I thought I'd post the following links here anyway, for those of your visitors who might be interested. Hope you don't mind.

Steinbeckathon Main Thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130105

Cannery Row (our January read): http://www.librarything.com/topic/130108

These are also on the main wiki for easy reference.

Thingaversary PLUS ONE?! Oh no...I have to start saving now...*seven* books in August!

Ooooh, Daryl, is it wrong that your TBR mountain (the close-up view, obviously) isn't making me fear for my life AT ALL, just making me drool a little bit? I love book photos... :)

PLUS ONE!!!! Oh gosh oh golly, that means I can/have to get three books. This is good actually as I have to find a copy of Infiinite Jest for the probably group read of that starting up.... I thought I had one of my own, but I can't seem to find it.

I have 205 books in my tbr pile more or less Darryl..... I'm thinking that tackling a percentage of it and then having a semi-realistic attempt to knock the total numbers down, as in, limit acquisition realistically..... gosh.... does this sound at all like anything you read about in the news????

All my best to you, your colleagues and your little ones. I deeply respect and appreciate what you do.

Today was a much less hectic day at work; none of my patients were as sick as the two I sent to the PICU yesterday. I slept for 8 straight hours last night, and fell asleep within minutes after I typed my last message last night. So, I feel much more rested than I did at this time yesterday.

The most stressful part of my day occurred when I walked past the 3West nurses' station at 6 pm, holding a slice of pizza and a salad from a beloved local Italian restaurant, which was given to me by the mother of one of my patients (the toddler from Friday with the severe pneumonia). At least six sets of eyes turned towards me, and I felt like a young zebra that was being ogled by a pack of starved hyenas.

>88 EBT1002: I've heard rumors about this --- is the rule that one must buy the number of books corresponding to the number of years one has been an addict a member?

>89 alcottacre: It is your Thingaversary years + 1, Ellen. You must make sure you have the 'one to grow on.'

Wait a minute. I've never heard about the "+1" clause. My sixth year Thingaversary is on June 8th, and I seriously doubt that I'll buy six (or seven) books at that time.

>90 EBT1002:, 91 Feel free to chat away at any time on my thread!

>92 cameling: Don't make me come out there and smack you with a smoked sturgeon, Darryl!

Ooh! I love smoked sturgeon, so I should keep up my anti-Patriots banter.

I'm far more worried about the possibility of a Giants-Packers playoff game the weekend after next, which will happen if the Giants beat the Falcons and the Saints beat the Lions this coming weekend. I saw nurse Amy today (the Packers fan to whom I lost the bet in last year's Super Bowl), and I told her that I wasn't going to wear the *&$^%!!! cheesehead again this year:



I've started 1Q84 and I'm really liking it so far ... even if I think I've sprained my left wrist catching it when it fell off the table this morning.

Oww...sorry to hear about that, Caroline. 1Q84 is a door stopper, although it doesn't seem to be as heavy as I thought it would be. I'll probably start it tonight.

>93 Chatterbox: OK, what is even more irrational than the stacks of books is that only two days into the new year, you have 92 messages on this thread...

Have you seen Richard's thread? He's already past 200 messages on January 3.

>97 thornton37814: Sorry to hear that it is a bad season for respiratory problems. I pray the children will recover quickly.

The two babies with RSV bronchiolitis who I sent to the PICU yesterday for respiratory failure are doing much better today, and they'll probably come back to me in the next day or two. All but one of the 9-10 babies I saw today with RSV improved over the day, and the other one didn't develop respiratory failure.

BTW, the baby I told you about last week with the intussusception (intestinal obstruction) that required emergency surgery to save his intestines did well post-operatively, and he went home on Saturday.

>98 Smiler69: I don't know how you managed to cope emotionally with the sight of all these sick babies.

It helps that I've had 11+ years of experience working as a pediatric hospitalist, and have taken care of >1000 infants with RSV. None of these babies has died as a result of the infection, and all recovered fully. RSV management, even for the sickest babies, is "bread and butter" for me and my partners, and I always have the option of transferring them to the PICU if they are too sick to be on the regular floor.

Did you choose to ignore my post way back up there in #72?

See message #73.

Thanks for posting those Steinbeckathon links, Ilana. I almost certainly won't participate, since I don't think I have any of his books anymore, but I'm sure that there is at least one person who reads my thread who will participate.

>100 elliepotten: is it wrong that your TBR mountain (the close-up view, obviously) isn't making me fear for my life AT ALL, just making me drool a little bit?

Not at all, Ellie. It shows that you have good taste (if not an equally worrisome book addiction).

>101 sibylline: I have 205 books in my tbr pile more or less Darryl..... I'm thinking that tackling a percentage of it and then having a semi-realistic attempt to knock the total numbers down, as in, limit acquisition realistically....

It sounds like what our dysfunctional Congress should be doing in concert with President Obama, to reduce the deficit. But, this is an election year, and it's obviously more important to grandstand and pander to your base instead of doing the hard work that's required to solve our nation's problems.

Hey, all I can say is...

Geaux Saints!

Love the picture of you (and your cheese hat) and Amy. Tell her I am with her!

I would just like to know...why is it all the teams I root for suck? Jets, Mets, Nets...wait...I see a pattern here....

Happy New Year, Darryl! Found and starred your thread. Can't wait to see what you read this year as well as keep up with the scintillating conversation on your threads if I can!

I'm definitely interested to see what you think of A Disease Apart and I may just join your Medicine group, as medical nonfiction (and some fiction) is certainly a genre I enjoy and would like to read more of.

See message #73

Oh! Oh! Oh! So sorry about that Darryl, the reason I didn't see it at first is easily explained. Not being a sports fan, and indeed having rather a dislike for sports, I tend to skip over all the posts that mention them... it just never occurred to me that the same message could contain both football stuff and... something that is actually of interest to me. :-p

Do you have a coffee grinder? I scored some cool coffee in my reporting trip today, and recall that if forced to choose btwn books and coffee, you'd have a hard time...

Echoing Jim "Geaux Saints!"

Well, I see I am the 109th person to post on your new thread. I am impressed by your TBR reduction plans (and ambivalent about joining in myself. You see, I like to tell myself that I am keeping independent book stores in business with my book habit--pure rationalization, I know, but there it is. Still, I can see the appeal of reading more books than I acquire in a year. I will continue to mull. )

Love the photo. You are obviously a secure man...for wearing and sharing!! LOL Better luck this year.

>102 kidzdoc:: Wait a minute. I've never heard about the "+1" clause. My sixth year Thingaversary is on June 8th, and I seriously doubt that I'll buy six (or seven) books at that time.
Really. You outdo most of us with your book buying on any given day, why should June 8 be different? :)

>103 drneutron:, 109 Geaux Saints!

I would love to see the Saints play the Packers in the NFC Championship game; it could be one of the greatest shootouts of all time.

>104 alphaorder: Love the picture of you (and your cheese hat) and Amy. Tell her I am with her!Love the picture of you (and your cheese hat) and Amy. Tell her I am with her!

Amy would like that. She gets no support for her Packers at work, and particularly at home from her husband, who had a few choice words for her when she (not so kindly) suggested that he could support the Packers once the Falcons were eliminated from the playoffs this coming weekend. She looks sweet and lovable in the photo, but she is a rabid beast when it comes to sports; as I mentioned last year, her husband's nickname for her is "Princess Potty Mouth".

>105 richardderus: Jets, Mets, Nets...wait...I see a pattern here....

All of them are the juniors of the more senior New York professional teams (Giants, Yankees, Knicks). Checking...yes, it holds for the Islanders as well; they are in last place in their division, and the Rangers are in first place.

That is what you meant, right?

>106 allthesedarnbooks: Happy New Year, Marcia! I posted a tentative list of books that I'm planning to read from my TBR piles in message #5. I'm also planning to read most if not all of the 2012 Booker Dozen (I read 12 of the 13 longlisted books last year), 8-10 of this year's Orange Prize longlist and the entire shortlist (I read at least 8 longlisted books, and 5 of the 6 shortlisted ones from 2011), as well. I'll probably tweak that list this weekend, to reflect the books that I'll read for different groups and challenges.

Hopefully my reading output will pick up in the next three days and this weekend, so that I can finish A Disease Apart by the weekend; I read nothing on Monday, and I couldn't finish one paragraph of 1Q84 before I fell asleep last night.

I hope that you do join the Medicine group!

>107 Smiler69: it just never occurred to me that the same message could contain both football stuff and... something that is actually of interest to me.

I'll have to remember that technique of sneaking literary comments into messages about sports.

>108 Chatterbox: I have two coffee grinders, at home and at work. I always buy whole bean coffee, and brew freshly ground coffee. My partners and practice manager know when I'm at work, as the aroma of coffee permeates the office first thing in the morning.

>110 AnneDC: I like to tell myself that I am keeping independent book stores in business with my book habit

I made that same comment last year, and received playfully derisive comments in return. I'll continue to support my favorite indies in 2012, but I'll try to restrict the number of books I buy on my trips, and wait to buy "must reads" books from them rather than from Amazon.

>111 Berly: The Giants almost beat the Packers in the regular season, and anything is possible. However, the Packers look even tougher this year than they did when they won the Super Bowl last season.

Brr. It's 23 degrees in Atlanta, with a wind chill of 11 degrees. I'd rather sit here under my blanket, but I have to get ready for work. Fortunately I'm off this weekend, and the weather in Atlanta will be much warmer then.

23 would be a heat wave for us right now! No whimpering!

You know as I was writing out my tbr reduction goals I got this feeling that I'd heard a lot of big talk about stuff like this....... So since it is an election year does that mean we get to grandstand and not actually do anything about our book problem too???????

What a cheezy photo!

I hope Catey remembered to take her coat with her to Atlanta. She is there all week long this week!

Hah! I'm a Bears fan. Lots of sympathy for having to wear the #!*% cheese hat!

You have my sympathy for the desire to burrow under the blankets! Getting up is hard enough, but the cold weather makes it a real chore.

I was so grateful when the RSV test came back negative for Doc (we had to take him in just after xmas) - that's no joke. I'm glad to hear that you're not seeing too many serious cases.

Ah, 23 with a windchill of 11 sounds positively balmy! Here it's 14 with a windchill of 2 and that's a great improvement over when I woke up this morning and the temperature read -3 on the back deck.

Yes, your TBR lists are impressive! I can always rely on you to read the weighty tomes and let me know which ones are actually worth my time and which ones are "How did THIS get nominated for an award?" lol.

And I did join the Medicine group. :)

Wow Darryl - only the 4th Jan and I'm already way behind on your thread - how on earth did that happen?! Wonderful TBR pile...

I'm making a new year's resolution to not need to read every single post on every single thread I've starred, so apologies in advance if I ask you to repeat yourself as yours is definitely one of those who I have no chance of keeping up with ;o) (and I'll try not to, I promise!).

Have definitely decided to go to the ASHG in San Francisco next year as my good mate based in Chicago and his wife will be moving there this year at some point, so it'll be a great excuse to catch up with them too! Will be drilling you for the most up to date great restaurants nearer the time ;o)

Happy New Year Darryl! I'm looking forward to trying to "keep up" with your thread again this year. Good luck with limiting your book buying - did I see you over on cameling's read more than you buy challenge?

BTW, the baby I told you about last week with the intussusception (intestinal obstruction) that required emergency surgery to save his intestines did well post-operatively, and he went home on Saturday.

HOORAY!!!!

woo!

I think that cheese hat pic is one of my all-time most favourite pics. Mostly because it makes me giggle like a loon when I look at it.

It's one of my favorites too, I'm glad to see it resurface! Thanks again for posting, Darryl!

Hail fellow megathreader.

Today was a much less busy day than the previous three, so I finished at a reasonable hour (5:30 pm). However, the traffic is beyond hideous, so I'll sit at my desk for a couple of hours until the roads aren't so badly congested, and catch up on some LT posts.

It's been an almost nonexistent reading week, as I've only read one paragraph of A Disease Apart since Monday. Hopefully I can read for at least a couple of hours tonight, and have far more reading time Friday through Sunday. I'll participate in this weekend's Read-a-Thon, although I'll spend part of Sunday afternoon with a group of work mates and friends over dim sum and soup dumplings.

>112 lauralkeet: Really. You outdo most of us with your book buying on any given day, why should June 8 be different?

I'm not sure that there will be seven books that I want to read in 2012 that I'll want to purchase at the same time, unless I choose to go to London during that time. My next significant book purchase will likely be selections from the upcoming Orange Prize longlist, and the Booker Dozen won't be announced until the summer I could postpone my Thingaversary purchases until July, and buy the longlisted books I don't already own as a late Thingaversary present.

>114 sibylline: 23 would be a heat wave for us right now! No whimpering!

It wasn't that bad, and this will help prepare me to face the weather in Wisconsin later this month. I probably shouldn't complain, but I don't like it when the weather fluctuates rapidly between being colder than normal (early this week) and being warmer than normal, as it is now (it's currently 57 degrees in Atlanta; the normal high temperature is 52 degrees; it will reach the low to mid 60s tomorrow, and stay there until late next week).

So since it is an election year does that mean we get to grandstand and not actually do anything about our book problem too???????

No! We must set a standard of fiscal responsibility, even if the members of Congress don't pay attention to our laudable efforts.

>115 alcottacre: I hope Catey remembered to take her coat with her to Atlanta. She is there all week long this week!

Nice! I hope that she has a good time in the ATL. As I mentioned, it will be in the low to mid 60s for the next 7-8 days, so she won't need a heavy coat.

>116 jnwelch: Hah! I'm a Bears fan. Lots of sympathy for having to wear the #!*% cheese hat!

Actually I like the Packers, but that cheesehead is beyond ugly.

>117 London_StJ: I was so grateful when the RSV test came back negative for Doc (we had to take him in just after xmas) - that's no joke. I'm glad to hear that you're not seeing too many serious cases.

I'm glad to hear that Doc didn't contract RSV. However, we're still in the midst of one of the worst RSV seasons in the past several years, and we continue to see plenty of new cases every day (including two of the kids that I admitted to the hospital yesterday).

>118 allthesedarnbooks: Yes, your TBR lists are impressive! I can always rely on you to read the weighty tomes and let me know which ones are actually worth my time and which ones are "How did THIS get nominated for an award?" lol.

Thanks, Marcia. I'll continue to do this in 2012, as well.

And I did join the Medicine group. :)

Great! I'll look for your comments there.

>119 flissp: I'm making a new year's resolution to not need to read every single post on every single thread I've starred, so apologies in advance if I ask you to repeat yourself as yours is definitely one of those who I have no chance of keeping up with ;o) (and I'll try not to, I promise!).

No problem, Fliss. When I'm busy at work, as I am now, I have to skim through the threads if I'm going to get any medical and pleasure reading done during the week.

Have definitely decided to go to the ASHG in San Francisco next year as my good mate based in Chicago and his wife will be moving there this year at some point, so it'll be a great excuse to catch up with them too! Will be drilling you for the most up to date great restaurants nearer the time ;o)

Excellent! You'll have to let me know when you're planning to go, in case I happen to be there at the same time. I know I'll be there in mid-July, for a pediatric conference at Stanford, and I'll probably go again in early October, for Litquake and the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

>120 markon: Good luck with limiting your book buying - did I see you over on cameling's read more than you buy challenge?

Yes, I'm definitely participating in Caroline's challenge, and I've posted tickers in relation to it in message #2 of this thread. My book buying binge at the end of last year was meant to buy those books that I planned to read for different groups and challenges in 2012, and to minimize the number of books I'll have to buy this year.

>121 EBT1002:, 122 Woo, indeed!

>123 tiffin: I think that cheese hat pic is one of my all-time most favourite pics. Mostly because it makes me giggle like a loon when I look at it.

Tui, I suspect that giggling like a loon is one of your favorite activities. ;-)

>124 LauraBrook: There will be no repeat of the Wearing of the Cheesehead in 2012!

>125 richardderus: Hail fellow megathreader.

Hail to you, my prolific friend. Unlike you, I'm still only on my first 75 Books thread, though.

Do you get this weekend off, Darryl? Hopefully you'll get some lovely reading time and also get to start on 1Q84.

I hope you get some reading time this weekend too. Readathon? do you have a link to a thread? I'm finding this group soooo busy at the moment.

Hi! Wow, your tbr pile is impressive. Glad to see others reading 1Q84 - I ordered a copy a while back and am interested to see what everyone thinks.

>127 cameling: Yes, I'm off this weekend. I should get some good reading time in, once I catch up on sleep.

>128 avatiakh: There has been some discussion on the Readathons! thread, but I haven't seen a new thread dedicated to this weekend's proposed Readathon.

>129 schweinsty: Thanks! BTW, there is a 1Q84 Group Read taking place in the Author Theme Reads group.

Thanks, I've been and posted. I'll probably start one of my Reading Globally reads over the weekend.

I just spent 90 minutes catching up on your threads. In retaliation here is another list of books that are coming out in 2012: http://www.themillions.com/2012/01/most-anticipated-the-great-2012-book-preview..... Cheers!

Hi Darryl, it's impossible to catch up on your first thread, but I noticed your very interesting reading-list. I guess the only way I'll keep up is checking in regularly... I'm looking forward to your review of Murakami's book. He's one of the authors I feel daunted by. I don't know why really.

I've had a good night of sleep, after a very busy but less hectic work week. I read essentially nothing after Sunday night, so I'm eager to make some progress over the next two days. I'll participate in this weekend's Read-a-Thon, in between running some errands today and getting together with some of my partners and other people at work for soup dumplings on Sunday.

>131 avatiakh: I need to start on one of my Reading Globally books soon, but I probably won't read anything before next weekend. I'll either start with The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric, or A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar.

>132 jmaloney17: Ha! Thanks for that link to the Millions article, Jennifer. I pre-ordered the Kindle version of The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq last month, and downloaded it to my Kindle earlier this week. Several of the books on the list are interesting, particularly HHhH by Laurent Binet, Wish You Were Here by Graham Swift, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, and The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle. Three books will likely be "must reads" for me: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa, and Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (I loved his Booker longlisted novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes). Hopefully the Mantel and the Hanif will be longlisted for this year's Booker Prize.

On the same note, today's Guardian has an article about the Literary events of 2012, which mentions several other intriguing books: Cairo: My Country, My Revolution by Ahdaf Soueif, Capital by John Lancester, Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher, Pure by Timothy Mo, Mo Said She Was Quirky by James Kelman, Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis, NW by Zadie Smith, Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson, and Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie. The Rushdie and the Smith will almost certainly be must reads; hopefully the best of the rest will also be included in the Booker Dozen.

>133 Trifolia: Hi Monica! I'll probably start 1Q84 later today, and I'm eager to get into it, since Caroline and others have enjoyed it so much. I'm not sure I can explain why I like Haruki Murakami as much as I do, although I have preferred his earlier novels, starting with A Wild Sheep Chase. The first Murakami I read was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which completely blew me away; I've been hooked on him ever since.

Me, too, Darryl. I started with After the Quake, which I loved, and went on a reading tear with his books after that. Nice to see you liked A Wild Sheep Chase - I think his plots can be too far out there for some people.

BTW, even a curmudgeon like me can see that's an awfully cute kitten.

Love that cute kitty video, Darryl ! It's good to hear that you had a good night's sleep .. you're going to need it because once you get started on 1Q84, you're going to find it difficult to put it down just to go meet your friends for soup dumplings on Sunday. haha... just a friendly warning.

Aww, love the cute kitty!
Enjoy your read-a-thon and your work party! Hope you get to relax and have a good weekend off work

Awww...love the kitty video!

>135 jnwelch: I was about to say that I've read almost all of Murakami's books, but I haven't read Dance Dance Dance, Kafka on the Shore, The Elephant Vanishes, After Dark or What I Talk About When I Talk About Running; I own all of them but the last title. Speaking of after the quake, I saw a play at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2007 with the same title, which featured the lead character in Super Frog Saves Tokyo and several others from the book.



>136 cameling: I'll have to pick up my reading pace if I'm going to start 1Q84 before we meet on Sunday. I had hoped to finish A Disease Apart today, but it's been a bit of a slog so far.

>137 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle. It will definitely be a relaxing weekend, and hopefully next week will be better than last week. It seems as though the RSV peak has passed, although influenza will probably be on the rise in Atlanta in the next week or two.

>138 tangledthread: Thanks!

>139 kidzdoc: Yes, that After the Quake play is where it all started for me, Darryl !!! I thought it was fantastic (it was put on here several years ago at Steppenwolf Theater Upstairs). I immediately bought the book of short stories. I'd never read Murakami before and that got me off and running on a months long binge!

I envy you the ones you haven't read yet - they're all outstanding (the only one I haven't read is the running one, although I read a magazine excerpt). Kafka on the Shore is my number one of all of his. I think you'll enjoy the trip.

Darryl, a few years a go Jim and I saw a marvelously imagined performance piece based on The Elephant Vanishes, by the group Theatre de Complicite, which despite its name is a British group. For this piece, they included Japanese actors and language and had surtitles over the proscenium. As I recall, it was at the State Theater at Lincoln Center. Terrific night out.

We've seen two other works by them, one inspired by the discovery of the ice-man in the Alps (Mnemonic), the other inspired by the(true) life of an Indian mathematician, self-taught, who was brought to England because of his incredible abilities, but went home and died young, before he could finish his work. The performances are not quite plays - or not only plays - very symbolic and movement-driven; that seemed to suit the Murakami perfectly.

the other inspired by the(true) life of an Indian mathematician, self-taught, who was brought to England because of his incredible abilities, but went home and died young, before he could finish his work
The Man Who Knew Infinity?

When are you coming to WI? Supposed to be in the high '40s again at the end of the week.

>140 jnwelch: I enjoyed that performance as well. I read my first Murakami in 2000, and I read after the quake not long before I saw the play.

I'll make it my business to read Kafka on the Shore this year. The movie based on Norwegian Wood starts this week, I think.

>141 ffortsa: That play sounds good, Judy. BTW, I'd love to hear about good plays that are taking place in NYC, as I enjoy good live theatre as much as I love to read. I couldn't get tickets to see One Man, Two Guvnors at the National Theatre in London last summer, so I definitely want to see it when it comes to NYC this spring.

Speaking of the National Theatre, I was thrilled to find out recently that several Atlanta area theatres are participating in NT Live, which show live(?) broadcasts of NT performances on the screen. I see that the next one will be Travelling Light on February 9. Fortunately I'm off that day, so I'll get a group together of people from work to see it with me.

>143 alphaorder: I'll fly to Madison on Fri Jan 27 or Sat Jan 28, depending on the flight schedules. I'd rather take a direct flight on Delta from ATL to MSN, but I usually have to pick up a connecting flight in Cincinnati or Detroit. I'll probably stay until the following Thu or Fri, as I have to work that following weekend.

Jim and I have taken advantage of NTLive, which isn't exactly live (consider the time difference) but is taped live.

We saw an exceptional new play of 'Frankenstein', and then a marvelous imaginative play called 'The Collaborators', posing the question of what would have happened if Bulgakov's oddly complimentary last play on Stalin's early years had actually been written with Stalin, in collaboration. A devastating exploration of how to seduce an enemy.

And all for $15 a seat!

#134: I will be interested in seeing what you think of The Bridge on the Drina if and when you read it, Darryl. I read it a couple years back and it was one of my top reads for the year.

>145 ffortsa: I saw the short video on the NT Live web site about The Collaborators; it looks good. Did you see One Man, Two Guvnors last fall? I was in San Francisco when it was being shown, but I waited too late to buy a ticket for it. Hmm...I wonder if you can buy DVDs of NT Live broadcasts? Off to check...no, at least not yet.

>146 alcottacre: I'll definitely read The Bridge on the Drina for the first quarter Reading Globally challenge, Turkey + the Balkans. If I don't get to it this month I'll almost certainly read it in February.

I finally finished A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World. I haven't reviewed any books yet this year, so I'll do that before I start my next book.

Finally finished does not promising. I hope the book was better than it sounds!

Book #1: Volcano by Shūsaku Endō, translated from the Japanese by Richard A. Schuchert



My rating:

Purchased at Strand Book Store, NYC on 12/26/11

Shūsaku Endō (1923-1996) is widely considered to be one of Japan's greatest 20th century writers, both within and outside of his country. He was born in Tokyo, grew up in Manchuria, and moved back to Japan with his mother after his parents divorced in 1933. The two initially lived with an aunt, who was one of the small minority of practicing Japanese Catholics. Endō was baptized the following year, and remained a practicing Catholic throughout his life. He was ostracized by his classmates for his religious beliefs during the wave of ultranationalism that swept the country, and he struggled with guilt due to his lack of deep faith. He graduated from Keio University with a degree in French literature, and then studied medicine at Waseda University, but he did not complete his training. Instead, he opted to study 20th century French Catholic literature at the University of Lyon in France. He returned to Japan, where he lectured and began to write.

Endō published his first novel, Shiroi Hito (White Men) in 1954, which was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize the following year. His most famous novel, Silence, was published in 1966. Endō was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1994, which was awarded to his countryman Kenzaburō Ōe; it is said that Catholic groups successfully lobbied against his nomination.

Endō was plagued by illness throughout his adult life, as he probably contracted tuberculosis as a teenager. The themes of his novels frequently include chronic illness, along with personal guilt and responsibility, Christianity, and the attempt to reconcile Western religious beliefs within traditional Japanese culture:

I felt that I had hit upon a theme peculiar to myself, which I would assume as the work of a lifetime. The theme is: To take the Christian religion which was so uncongenial to me as a Japanese, analyze why it was so uncongenial, and in some way to make it something more compatible — in other words, with my own hand I would remodel the ill-fitting suit of European clothes that my mother had dressed me in, and I would make of it a kimono more becoming in me as a Japanese.

Shusaku Endō is the featured author in this year's Author Theme Reads group, and I plan to read eight of his books this year: Volcano, Silence, Stained Glass Elegies, When I Whistle, Scandal, The Golden Country: A Play About Christian Martyrs in Japan, The Samurai and Deep River. I read The Sea and Poison last year, which was excellent.

So, with that background in mind, here's my review of Volcano.

Volcano was originally published in 1959, and is set the town of Kagoshima on Kyushu Island, which is situated at the edge of a dormant volcano, Akadaké. Suda Kun has just retired after a long career as the Section Chief of the Surveillance Section of the regional Weather Bureau. He was called the "Akadaké Demon", as he claimed to know more about the volcano than anyone else on the island, despite his lack of a formal education. He wishes to publish a book about his research in order to cement his reputation, and agrees to help Aiba, a local city councilman, in a profit making scheme in exchange for financial support of his book.

Father Sato is the popular leader of a small but growing Catholic church in town, who has replaced Father Durand, a Frenchman who was removed for committing apostasy. Durand, embittered by his fall, receives frequent visits by Sato, but he belittles his former assistant and his plans to build a sanctuary for his followers on the side of the volcano.

Suda and Durand are felled by serious illness, and are faced with their own mortality. At the same time Akadaké is showing signs of renewed life after decades of dormancy, which threaten the plans of Aiba and Father Sato. Suda, who has proclaimed that the volcano is permanently dormant, chooses to ignore clues which indicate that it is becoming active. Durand actively tries to undermine Sato's position and the faith of the people he formerly ministered to. Both men face their own mortality and guilt about their past behavior, while the smoking volcano towers over them ominously, as if in judgment of them.

Volcano is a superbly written and dark yet hopeful novel, whose two main characters experience torment and guilt in the face of imminent death. Suda's lack of compassion toward his wife and sons and Durand's lack of belief in the faith of his parishioners lead directly to the fall of each man, as the volcano serves as a metaphor for both good and evil, and as a symbol of the unchanging power of Nature and God.

I would love to read more of Endo's work, but I think the local library only had his Silence, which I enjoyed a lot. I will have to double check. Thanks for the reminder, Darryl.

>148 alcottacre: Finally finished does not promising. I hope the book was better than it sounds!

A Disease Apart wasn't as good as I had hoped, and I would only marginally recommend it. I'll review it shortly.

>150 alcottacre: I had mentioned on the Author Theme Reads group that the Strand had discounted new copies of several of Endō's books published by Tuttle Classics, which were sold at half price or less. My copy of Volcano has a list price of $15.95, but I paid $7.95 for it. The other books by Endō I bought on Boxing Day cost no more than $6.95. The Strand's web site also has copies of several of his books that are similarly priced.

If Volcano and The Sea and Poison are indicative of his work (and I suspect that they are), Endō will be added to my list of favorite authors.

BTW, Caryl Phillips wrote a wonderful article about Endō, who is one of his favorite authors. It appeared in his book Colour Me English, but it was also published in the Guardian in 2003:

Confessions of a true believer

Book #2: False Friends: Book Two by Ellie Malet Spradbery



My rating:

False Friends: Book Two is a follow up to the author's first book, which serves as a guide to French and English words which are similar in appearance and spelling to each other, but have different meanings. For example, deride in English means to ridicule, whereas the French word dérider has almost the opposite meaning, 'to cheer (somebody) up.' Other sections describe common French expressions (e.g., une araignée au plafond refers to 'bats in the belfry', which can be useful for insulting someone without their knowledge), lists of words with multiple meanings (un bourdon can mean a bumblebee or a typo), lists of birds and maladies, miscellaneous words, and the French equivalent of common English expressions (e.g., 'all things considered' in French is tout compte fait).

The book and the first one in the series are not meant for the novice speaker, but they would be a good travel companions for someone with at least an intermediate knowledge of the French language.

#149 - Great review, Darryl. I'm not very familiar with him, but I saw that he was the main focus of the author theme read. I'll have to figure out which of his books to put on my wishlist.

Two good reviews this weekend! Guess that means you are fitting in some good reading time! Glad to hear it!

Our house has turned into a sick house this weekend! My TMJ has acted up and caused some pretty yucky migraines and Nate caught something on base and brought it home! I hope it's not flu or I'll end up catching it too :(

Hope this week is nice and calm for you and influenze doesn't bring you too many patients!

eta fixed my atrocious spelling errors

Great review of Volcano, Darryl. I should add this to my obese wish list.

I second Joe's urging that you move Kafka on the Shore up your reading plan. It was my absolute favorite of the Murakami books I've read thus far, until it was recently toppled, or rather gently nudged aside, by 1Q84. I like it so much that I've read it at least 3 times so far.

>153 DorsVenabili: Thanks, Kerri. I wasn't familiar with Endō until last year, when lilisin highly recommended The Sea and Poison. I enjoyed it and Volcano, and would highly recommend them, although Silence is considered to be his masterpiece. I'll probably read it early next month, when I visit my best friends in Madison (they bought it for me as a Christmas present, and Murielle might want to read it).

>154 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle. I finished those two books on New Year's Day, but I'm only now reviewing them. I'll review A Disease Apart this afternoon, as I'll be meeting friends for soup dumplings in a little over an hour. Sorry to hear about your sick house; I hope that you don't catch what Nate has!

>155 cameling: Thanks, Caroline. My numerical rating of Volcano would be 4.2 stars, so it's pretty close to a 4½ star read.

I'll definitely read Kafka on the Shore for the Author Theme Reads group, as I've owned my copy for several years (another one to take off of the TBR pile).

Morning Darryl- I am a big Murakami fan too. I've only read 6 so far, so I have many others to get to, including his latest. Kafka on the Shore still remains my favorite.
I was at a party with friends last night and was chatting with a guy about beer and he mentioned a place in Atlanta called Taco Mac (sp) ? He said the beer selection was out of this world. 300 beers on tap! Could this be true?

As I suspected, my local library only has Endo's Silence. *sigh* I will have to try and get hold of more of his books elsewhere.

Hi Darryl, just catching up here and enjoying your reviews as usual. I've yet to read Murakami but will remedy that this year when I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood which I picked up last year. Volcano sounds really good.

Darryl, I'll keep you posted on what Jim and I see of the New York stage this year. January is pretty quiet for us, but after that we have a substantial number of series tickets, and there's always the occasional for-profit show we jump into.

I was sorry to miss 'The Cherry Orchard' at CSC, which closes today, alas. It sounded quite unusual. We just heard of a revival of Tina Howe's 'Painting Churches', which sounds nicely cast. I wasn't looking to see the revival of 'Road To Mecca', but Rosemary Harris is in the lead, and that's quite a draw. We'll keep you posted.

Between now and the end of February, Jim and I will be seeing more movies than theater, trying to be credible guests at the annual Oscars party my Hoboken friends hold. Somehow, they always see EVERYTHING. And we are lucky to have seen four or five of the nominees. So we try to catch up in January.

Darryl, I am hereby lodging a complaint about your thread title. Every time I see it, I catch the words "Cutting down", my brain completes the sentence as 'on your reading' and the whole world shivers a little at the wrongness of it all.

When titling your threads in future, please be more considerate and bear other people in mind. Especially ME!!!

However, we're still in the midst of one of the worst RSV seasons in the past several years

:(

A Disease Apart wasn't as good as I had hoped, and I would only marginally recommend it. I'll review it shortly.

I'd say "bummer," but at least I don't have to add another book to the endless wishlist.

>149 kidzdoc: Thumbs-upped your usual excellent review, Darryl. I will treat this little marvy like it's got herpes, however, since every single thing about it makes me angry: Smoking volcano, Catholic guilt. Catholic priests, Christianity...blech. I suspect Endo and I are not destined to be boon companions on life's literary road.

OMG. I got together with two of my partners, one of the physician assistants in my group, and two of the women's friends for brunch at Chef Liu, on Buford Highway in Doraville (for those of you who live in the Atlanta area), a Chinese restaurant in a strip mall which is best known for its pork soup dumplings. Wow...as I said on my Facebook post, I've officially died and gone to heaven. The pork soup dumplings (ShangHai juicy steamed pork buns) were the best I've tasted (even better than Yank Sing in San Francisco), as was the hot spicy beef tripe and the lamb dumplings. Even the salted soy milk was memorable. We ate seemingly nonstop for over an hour, but the bill only came to $12.50 per person, including tax and the tip. I've now found my favorite Chinese restaurant in Atlanta!

More heaven...the New York Giants are thoroughly dominating the Atlanta Falcons, leading 17-2 heading into the fourth quarter. Go Big Blue!!!

>157 msf59: Only six Murakami novels so far, Mark? And you call yourself a fan??? ;-)

I think you may have me beat. Let's see...The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, A Wild Sheep Chase, after the quake, Underground, South of the Border, West of the Sun, Hear the Wind Sing, Pinball, 1973. That's eight.

Oddly enough I've never been to a Taco Mac, even though they are all over Atlanta. I think that guy is right, as I've heard the same thing about it.

The Giants missed a FG, but they still lead the Falcons 24-2 with less than 3 minutes to go. So, the Giants will travel to Green Bay to play the Packers next weekend. The Packers had to come back at the end of the game in Week 13 to beat the Giants 38-35, so it should be a good one. I can't wait!

>158 alcottacre: I hope that you can find some of Endo's books, Stasia. Interestingly, our physician assistant that came for lunch recently read Silence, and her boyfriend was going to read it soon, after a friend of his discussed the book with him yesterday.

It's over: Giants 24, Falcons 2. The Giants are peaking at the right time, and this was arguably their best all around performance of the year.

>159 brenzi: Thanks, Bonnie. I think you're in for a treat with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood, two of my favorite Murakami novels.

>160 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy. BTW, have you ever been to the McCarter Theatre on Princeton's campus? It's one of my favorite venue to see plays and concerts in, and it's very easy to get to from NYC (NJ Transit Trenton Local to Princeton Junction, then take the "dinky" from there to Princeton station, which is just across the street from the theatre). There is an interesting play that is being performed now, The Convert; I wish I was up there to see it.

>161 lunacat: I am hereby lodging a complaint about your thread title.

You should thank me for my effort to cut down on my book purchases instead. The less books I buy, the less temptation there is for you (and everyone else) to buy books, right?

>162 London_StJ: I'd say "bummer," but at least I don't have to add another book to the endless wishlist.

See? I saved at least some of you from buying a disappointing book. I'm good for something! I'll review A Disease Apart shortly, before the Steelers-Broncos game kicks into high gear.

Wow (again). The Steelers just took the field in Denver, and it looks as though there are nearly as many Pittsburgh fans as there are for the home team. So much for home field advantage.

>163 richardderus: I will treat this little marvy like it's got herpes, however, since every single thing about it makes me angry: Smoking volcano, Catholic guilt. Catholic priests, Christianity...blech. I suspect Endo and I are not destined to be boon companions on life's literary road.

I think not. I won't send you any of Endo's books as gifts in this lifetime.

I'm sorry your Falcons lost, Darryl. Ready to come over and pull for the Pats in the playoffs? ;-)

Book #3: A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World by Tony Gould



My rating:

Purchased at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, San Francisco on 9/5/05

In A Disease Apart, Tony Gould describes the history of leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, over the past 200 years, with a focus on the devastating effects of the disease, the often inhumane conditions in which people infected with Mycobacterium leprae were forced to live, and selected missionaries, physicians and especially patients themselves whose efforts led to improved care and living conditions for people afflicted with leprosy worldwide.

Leprosy has been a feared illness since antiquity, due to the havoc it wreaks upon the body. Unlike infections or illnesses that ravage internal organs, such as its closely related cousin tuberculosis, which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, leprosy preferentially infects cooler parts of the body, particularly as the fingers, toes, eyes, nose and testes. The immune system's response to the infection often leads to an intense inflammatory response, which causes severe damage to the superficial nerves in these areas, leading to peripheral neuropathy. As a result, the afflicted person progressively loses sensation in these areas, which ultimately leads to tissue breakdown, ulceration and bacterial superinfection, followed by the loss of fingers and toes, destruction of the structure of the nose, and, in some cases, blindness.

Leprosy remains the most common infection that leads to disability, and its elimination has proven to be difficult, with nearly 250,000 new cases worldwide annually, including approximately 100 new cases in the United States each year. The prevalence (total number of cases) has declined dramatically, due to the introduction of the antibiotic dapsone in the 1940s, widespread distribution of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis (which also provides protection against Mycobacterium leprae), free distribution of multidrug therapy to all newly diagnosed patients worldwide, and improved recognition and diagnostic techniques. However, in recent years, the incidence (the number of new cases) has not changed significantly. Leprosy is a disease of poverty, and 90% of cases occur in the poorest regions of Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and Nepal, which suffer from poor health care and access to medical resources. One to two million people are permanently disabled by the disease, many of whom continue to suffer from ostracism and inadequate care.

In the pre-antibiotic era, the most successful technique to prevent the spread of leprosy was compulsory segregation of those afflicted with the disease. Due largely to the fear of transmission of the disease to healthy individuals, people infected with leprosy were treated as badly if not worse than criminals: they were housed in the most decrepit settlements, which were often ringed with walls and barbed wires, with no protection from the elements, inadequate food and water, and little if any medical care. Those who sought to leave the leprosariums were hunted down like escaped convicts, and forcibly returned. In some extreme cases, the afflicted were gathered under false pretenses, and shot or burned alive en masse.

Gould thoroughly though repetitively describes the barbarous treatment that people infected with leprosy received in countries throughout the world, which differed little from one country to the next, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The strongest sections of the book are those in which he recounts the lives of those who sacrificed and dedicated their lives to the improvement of leprosy sufferers, particularly Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who ministered to the colony of lepers in Molokai, Hawai'i before succumbing to the illness himself; John Ruskin Early, a leprous 'religious fanatic, a bigot, and exhibitionist' who tormented public health and government officials with his 'psychotic' behavior, but who also was instrumental in the creation of the national hospital for leprosy victims in Carville, Louisiana; and Stanley Stein, a long term resident at Carville, whose newspaper and frequent articles about the conditions there led to greater public awareness and government support for the disease and its sufferers.

A Disease Apart is a valuable addition to the history of medicine, which describes past and present challenges to the care of those afflicted with leprosy. Although written for the lay public it would be of most interest to those who have a strong interest in the disease or the individuals who were most influential in the advances made in its treatment.

#166: I think I will give that one a pass for now. Nice review, Darryl.

A sobering and painful read I'm sure, thank you for the review.

166: Already on my wishlist, but now even wishlistier... I had supposed leprosy to be not necessarily eradicated, but vanishing with modern medicine.

>165 cameling: My Falcons??? I only live here, dearest Caroline; my heart and professional sports loyalties reside in NYC and Philadelphia. I'll root for the Patriots, now that the Fighting Tebows upset the Steelers in OT today.

>167 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. I own one other related book, The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai by John Tayman; I suspect that this will be a more enjoyable read than A Disease Apart.

>168 sibylline: I would have thought that the incidence of leprosy was on the decline as well. I read a couple of recent journal articles, particularly Leprosy now: epidemiology, progress, challenges, and
research gaps by Laura C Rodrigues and Diana N J Lockwood, which was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal last year, to get the most up to date statistics about leprosy, since A Disease Apart was published in 2005. There has been little if any change in the incidence of leprosy worldwide, and it appears that the incidence in Brazil has increased slightly over the past 30 years.

Wishlistier...I like that!

I'm going to have to wait for the cable guy next Saturday afternoon, so it looks like I'll watch some more football. None of the teams I traditionally hate have made it this far - excellent.

Glad to see that you got started with such an eclectic bunch of books! Oddly enough, I think Endo and Murakami are the only major Japanese authors of the 20th century whose work I haven't read, though I have some of Endo's novels lurking around here.

If I'm going to read about deadly diseases this year, I think I'll stick to cancer rather than leprosy, and read The Emperor of All Maladies.

>171 ffortsa: Can I assume that one of those teams is the Cowboys? Might the Eagles be another one?

Right! So my home team is in, and New Orleans and Denver. The team I don't know is from Houston, they of the hopelessly unimaginative name. Are we really down to four teams already? Or have I missed a whole bye group?

The Cowboys aversion comes from a time when I was glad to see the Steelers hand them their heads. As for the Eagles, I borrow my animus from my brother, who lives near Philly.

>172 Chatterbox: A Disease Apart is one of the TBR books that I've been meaning to read for several years. So, although I didn't completely love it, I'm glad that I've moved it off of my pile.

I'm very eager to read more of Endo's books this year, and I'm very glad that lilisin chose to make him the featured author of the Author Theme Reads group.

I'd definitely recommend The Emperor of All Maladies over A Disease Apart.

>174 ffortsa: I've been a Giants fan since the late 1960s, when Fran Tarkenton led Big Blue to an occasional victory, and an Eagles fan since the mid 1970s, when my family moved from Jersey City to suburban Philadelphia.

Eight teams remain alive for the playoffs, four in each conference: New York, Green Bay, New Orleans and San Francisco in the NFC, and New England, Denver, Baltimore and Houston in the AFC.

Darryl I thoroughly enjoyed your review of the Volcano by Endo and your succinct precis of his life and career. My own Japanese reading experience got off to a bad start in the mid 1990's when I read A Quiet Life by Kenzaburo Oe and found it impenetrable. Returned to the country only last year with Norwegian Wood by Murakami which I really liked and I will certainly pursue more Nipponese reading in the near future.

*whispers*: go packers

*skedaddles before Ellen's apostasy can be punished both swiftly and condignly*

xo

>177 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I haven't read A Quiet Life, so I can't comment on that title, but I have enjoyed several of Oe's books, particularly A Personal Matter, A Healing Family and Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids. I haven't read anything by him in a while, and I disliked his recent novel Somersault, but I plan to read The Changeling later this year (another TBR book).

>178 EBT1002: That is such a benign comment, particularly in comparison to the mega sized Green Bay helmet and obnoxious photo that a certain person posted on my thread on the eve of last year's Super Bowl. I may be getting soft, but I'll have to let it stand without a negative response.

>179 richardderus: Ah! There's that certain person. You'll be rooting for the Giants, right?

I didn't do any significant reading yesterday, except for ~15 pages of my latest Early Reviewer book Best Mets. I tried to catch up on LT posts for a couple of hours, but I seemed to be further behind after I was done.

Monday has come way too early once again. Hopefully I'll get a bit more reading done between now and Friday than I did last week (35 pages from Monday-Friday).

#176 - It's interesting that you're both a Giants fan and an Eagles fan, but I accept your explanation. I'm not sure who I'll cheer for next week (the Giants or Greenbay), as neither team offends me deeply. They aren't one of the three "despicables" (Cowboys, Bears, and Steelers).

> 134

awww kitty!

35 pages is appalling. You should be ashamed of yourself ;)

Thanks for straightening me out, Darryl. I thought I'd somehow missed a week.

One of my book groups read A Personal Matter a while ago - I found it rather painful. I understand it is a partly autobiographical story.

#126 Oh, I'd love to be in San Francisco for the Jazz Festival - unfortunately, the Conference is later than usual this year and doesn't happen until the start of November... Will let you know (I won't know until April for sure).

#134 Oh how adorable!

Thank you for the Guardian link - I'll go and check it out in a minute!

#134/9 Re Murakami, I am, in fact, in the middle of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the moment - enjoying it so far...

#144 You'll have to let me know if Travelling Light is any good Darryl - it's not one I've got tickets for and I'm not allowing myself to buy any more tickets in January (or at least until I get paid)!

#149 Volcano sounds intriguing - I'll keep an eye out for it...

Much as it pains me, I will root for the Giants on The Evil Day.

Not me. Packers all the way.

Thanks for all the information about Endo. I've read several of his books, and have several more on my shelf for this year. I hadn't heard of Volcano, which I will now add to the list.

As a child, I became fascinated with leperosy, after being frightened by the treatment of lepers as depicted in one of Charleton Heston's Biblical movies (can't remember the name). I didn't realize the disease was still so prevalent. When we lived in NO, my husband (an architect) did some work out at Carville.

Oooh, I'll have to add Chef Liu and National Theatre Live to my to do list! A friend and I ate dim sum at Happy Valley in Gwinnett county this weekend. It was good, but not great. (Except for the abalone. Yum!)

I have Endo on my list, just haven't got him at the top yet.

P.S. I'm drooling over several of the items on the millions 2012 preview. It's bad enough when I have to add already existing books to my list, now I'm adding ones that aren't even available yet!

>182 DorsVenabili: The Cowboys are the only team that we both despise. The Redskins are, of course, long time rivals of the Eagles and Giants, but I don't have the intense dislike of them as I do the Cowboys. The Jets are now becoming a team that I hate, mainly because of their head coach.

>183 mckait: The kitty is very cute, but not as adorable as many of the kids I see in the hospital. The cutest kid of the day award goes to a 2 year old girl with curly blond hair, who was hanging out at the nurses' station while her mother, new boyfriend and grandparents went to Juvenile Court this afternoon (unfortunately she will be placed in foster care, as she came into the hospital with multiple bruises, cuts and a split lip; we've had quite a few cases of child abuse this month, which is not uncommon around and after Christmas). She was sitting next to a nurse, who was entering data into a computer, and was playing with the new Barbie computer she had just received. She squirmed and squealed playfully while I examined her, and repeatedly said "I'm working on the 'puter!" The girl's 21 year old mother was divorced from her husband (at 21!!!), had the girl by another guy, and was in a relationship with yet another man. Not exactly the most stable home environment, to say the least.

>184 lunacat: 35 pages is appalling. You should be ashamed of yourself ;)

I could have done more reading during that week, but I spent a couple of hours every day in a futile attempt to catch up on LT posts. My new strategy will be to read for a couple of hours first, and then catch up on LT later.

>185 ffortsa: Yes, A Personal Matter and several of Oe's other books are fictionalized or biographical accounts of his son, who was born with a brain defect. If I remember correctly, the younger Oe, although still quite disabled, is an award winning composer of classical music.

>186 flissp: Fliss, the SF Jazz Festival lasts until late November to early December, so there will likely be some concerts in town when you're there.

I'll definitely let you know about Travelling Light. Maybe you could see the NT Live performance of it, as well?

>187 richardderus: I will root for the Giants

Excellent! After this past season, maybe we'll convert you to support the Giants from now on. Big Blue has won at least three Super Bowls since the Jets' last Super Bowl win.

>188 alphaorder: Packers all the way.

They certainly could repeat as Super Bowl champs, although they will likely face tough competition in the NFC playoffs and the Super Bowl, if they get that far.

>189 arubabookwoman: I first heard about Carville when I was an undergraduate student at Tulane in the late 1970s, as it was still in operation at that time. I knew that it was still in existence, although I had no idea that there was still such as high incidence rate, both worldwide and in the United States.

>190 markon: Definitely check out Chef Liu, Ardene. It was packed when we went on Sunday, but I arrived first, and just in time to grab one of the large tables (I don't think the restaurant takes reservations). Several people in my group, especially those who couldn't make it, want to go after I raved about it, and we'll probably go again later this month.

Hi Darryl, great reviews. Many books added to the TBR list. Being an Indian ( ie from India) I don't understand American football ( its not a ball it's spindle shaped and they carry it most of the time hence its not football).

#192

You're very correct about American football. It is rugby for wimps. Wearing all that protective gear etc - they need to man up, strip down and wear nothing but tight shorts and tops. Much more fun, and there is more blood too.

192 and 193......Just about sprayed the computer with my last sip of tea when I read the football analysis!

Daryl....I'm not sure how your heart withstands the continuous stream of stories like the little girl in 191. Hope the little girl finds a good place to shelter her precious childhood.

Book #4: Best Mets: Fifty Years of Highs and Lows from New York's Most Agonizingly Amazin' Team by Matthew Silverman



My rating:

Meet the Mets, meet the Mets
Step right up and greet the Mets
Bring your kiddies, bring your wife
Guaranteed you'll have the time of your life
Because the Mets are really socking the ball
Knocking those home runs over the wall
East side, west side
Everybody's coming down
To meet the M-E-T-S, Mets
Of New York town

If you are of middle age and know the lyrics to this song by heart, this book is definitely for you!

For the rest of you, a little background is in order. The New York Mets (short for Metropolitans) are a professional baseball team which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its inaugural season in 1962. During the 1940s and 1950s, New York was the center of baseball, which featured three outstanding teams who often faced each other in the World Series: the New York Yankees of the American League, and the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. Unfortunately, the Giants and Dodgers were lured away to San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively after the 1957 season, a loss which is still felt by fans of both teams. The city was awarded a new National League team to replace the departed ones, which opened the 1962 season in the dilapidated Polo Grounds, the former home of the Giants.

The team was abysmal in its first six years of existence (1962-1967), finishing in last place all but once during that time. Despite their ineptitude on the field, the team was beloved by its fans, and the Mets developed a sort of cult following. The 1968 team was significantly improved, but still only managed to finish 9th out of the 10 National League clubs. Then came the "Amazin'" season of 1969: the Mets won 100 games, finishing first in the National League, and they earned a ticket to the World Series after defeating the Atlanta Braves. Next up was the mighty Baltimore Orioles, who were heavily favored to win the Series. However, the Mets won the best of seven series in five games, in one of the biggest upsets in sports history. I was eight years old at that time, and had attended several Mets games that season and the two preceding ones with my church's youth group, so I was a fan of the team, and went bonkers during their impossible championship run.

Matthew Silverman, who is clearly a diehard and lifelong Mets fan, has compiled a history of the best and worst of the New York Mets over their first 50 seasons in Best Mets, including brief descriptions of the most memorable and best forgotten players, coaches, broadcasters, teams and games for the club that has won two World Series (in 1969 and 1986) and appeared in two other ones (in 1973 and 2000). The book would be best appreciated by readers who are familiar with the team and grew up watching the Mets on WOR television and at Shea Stadium over the years.

ugh! more sports talk! lol..

#196

I shall pelt him with rotten olives until he stops

I never knew what leprosy was exactly, but while A Disease Apart sounds interesting, I think I got all the key info from your great review!

Today was one of the more painful days I've had on service in quite awhile, with an unusually high amount of unnecessary drama, including a very hostile mother, a mentally unstable nutritionist, and several brain dead respiratory therapists who I wanted to bludgeon repeatedly with a blunt object. I would describe it as a "two pencil" day, a phrase used by the pediatric residents at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh when I was a medical student at Pitt, a day in which the only action that would successfully take away the extreme torture of the day is to repeatedly stab yourself in each eye with a sharpened pencil, one in each hand. There must have been a full moon or some other cosmic effect, as several other physicians, MLPs (mid-level providers, either physician assistants or nurse practitioners) and nurses also had unusually unpleasant days. My original plan after work was to buy the largest bottle of vodka I could find, and guzzle it nonstop until I passed out. Fortunately I was talked out of that idea, mainly because I have to return to work tomorrow, and that plan would have made Friday (the 13th, aieee!) that much more painful.

>192 mausergem: I don't understand American football (its not a ball it's spindle shaped and they carry it most of the time hence its not football).

I can't disagree with this comment. I'm not sure who gave the American sport its name, but it's too late now, unfortunately. One of my alma maters (Rutgers) played Princeton in the first intercollegiate football game in 1869, so we'd have to overturn nearly 150 years of history to make a name change now.

>193 lunacat: You're very correct about American football. It is rugby for wimps.

Jenny, please let me know when you plan to visit the U.S. next, so that I can take you to a college football or NFL game. Alternatively, I'd be happy to treat you to an NFL game at Wembley Stadium (it seems as though there is at least one game there every year). Then you can decide if American football players are "wimps". Rugby players seem to be about as athletic and fleet of foot as three-toed sloths.

>194 tangledthread: I'm not sure how your heart withstands the continuous stream of stories like the little girl in 191. Hope the little girl finds a good place to shelter her precious childhood.

I hope so, too. The girl looked like a junior version of Little Orphan Annie, and she was just as cute. One of her grandmothers was awarded custody of her yesterday, and hopefully law enforcement can find out who did this to her, so that they can be imprisoned for a good long time. Unfortunately she wasn't the only child who is on our service because of child abuse. One baby has taken up residence at the nurses' station, after he was placed in protective custody after he was found to have at least eight old fractures (arms, legs, ribs) in addition to the fracture that led to his admission to the hospital, and another young child is in the Rehabilitation unit, as he is paralyzed on one side after a severe beating that led to brain damage. Oh, I almost forgot about the child I saw Monday through Wednesday, who also suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of child abuse, and now has cerebral palsy, seizures and severe developmental delay. He was adopted by an incredible foster family, but no amount of love will ever make this boy even remotely close to normal again.

>196 mckait: ugh! more sports talk!

There will probably be less sports talk on this thread this winter, particularly after the NFL season ends. Pitt's basketball team is having a nightmarish season, and it will be a miracle if they make the NCAA tournament this year.

>197 lunacat: I shall pelt him with rotten olives until he stops

Hmm...the more I talk about sports, the more likely that at least two of my main tormentors, Jenny and Ilana, will avoid this thread. I think I'll keep it up.

>198 carlym: while A Disease Apart sounds interesting, I think I got all the key info from your great review!

Thanks, Carly. I have at least one other book about leprosy, which should be far more interesting than this book.

Speaking of leprosy, I reviewed two books for the January/February issue of Belletrista, The Leper Compound by Paula Nangle, and The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam, which was just released today.

The Leper Compound by Paula Nangle



My rating:

In The Leper Compound, Paula Nangle draws from her childhood spent in southern Africa and her experiences as a psychiatric nurse to craft this insightful debut novel about pre- and postcolonial Zimbabwe and South Africa. The story traces a European girl's maturation to adulthood, compounded by her shifting sense of identity and belonging, and illnesses that affect both her and those who are closest to her.

You can read the rest of the review here: http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue15/reviews_11.php

The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam



My rating:

This brilliant novel about the Bangladeshi independence movement, its aftermath, and the subsequent Islamic movement is one of my ten favorite novels of 2011. It is centered around the relationship of two siblings, each of whom made significant decisions before and after the war of independence that affected their individual lives, their close relationship with each other, and the fates of those closest to them.

You can read the rest of my review here: http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue15/reviews_13.php

#199: Actually last night was very close to a full moon, so you seem to have put your finger on the cause. http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon Fortunately phases are just phases.

>203 RandyMetcalfe: Thanks, Randy. According to this, I can take some comfort that next week will be a better (or at least less drama filled) one.

#199 - I'm picturing a mentally unstable nutritionist right now.

>205 DorsVenabili: We all (MDs, nurses) think that this nutritionist is a bit eccentric and wacky, but she outdid herself yesterday. She called me yesterday, agitated and somewhat frantic, and wanted me to come to the floor STAT to tell a mother of a baby with a metabolic disorder that she is not allowed to mix the baby's formula in the room, because it is against hospital policy (!). She said that there is a risk of contamination if the mother is allowed to do this, which could put the hospital at medicolegal risk if the baby were to acquire an infection. The mother was doing this because the baby has to take a nutritional supplement which would prevent irreversible brain and liver damage, which we did not have in the hospital. The nutritionist wanted me to tell her that she should not use the supplement while she was in the hospital (WTF!!!).

I calmly told the nutritionist that I would be by, later, and would talk with the mother. Surprisingly, I opted to tell the very competent and intelligent mother that she should ignore the psychotic nutritionist, and continue to make the formula as she normally does at home, as I was more concerned about brain and liver damage than I was about her ability to mix the formula properly.

I saw the nutritionist down the hall later in the day, and I changed directions to avoid her.

BTW, I was joking about my proposed plan to drink myself into a vodka-induced stupor yesterday. I will do it today, though. ;-)

Darryl- Hopefully you'll have a less stressful day, today! Do you work the weekend too?

Charming! You accuse me of ignoring your thread, and then conspire to get rid of me.

For that, I shall never leave. You will not beat me. And today, I choose to pelt you with durian fruit.

Darryl - Just wanted to let you know that there is snow in WI - finally!

197 lunacat... if you are finsihed pelting him with olives.. you can fling themmy way .. I am a fan of olives..

206 She sounds like a total loon of the sort that seem to be everywhere today.....

#206 - My sister has been a nurse for many years (mostly in the E.R.) and I've heard so many stories about the intense outbursts by co-workers and the fights that occur. (Or maybe that's not typical and she just works with a lot of high-strung people?) Surely the stakes are so much higher (saving lives and all) in the medical profession, than in many other work settings, so tensions are higher. It's funny, because, in my office, it would a catastrophe if someone is frowning ("Why is so-and-so frowning?" Can you believe so-and-so is frowning?"). I'm exaggerating a little, but the workplace differences are interesting.

Anyway, I hope today is a better day.

Darryl -
Really had to laugh about the term "two pencil" day. We have lots of them here. But have never heard the term "MLP". I am an NP and I can tell you that I hate the term "mid-level". It gets used a lot but I think most NPs resent the term.

I will remember the 'two pencil day' I think my daughter will like it!

Wow, this thread went from full of sports to full of flying fruit! Interesting change of events!

(Ps I like your term "Two pencil day!" often at work I ask to borrow a pencil to stab in my ear drum when someone is being loud and obnoxious nearby, but I've never asked to borrow two!)

207: Seems reasonable to me, Darryl. Mazel Tov!

>208 msf59: Today was much less stressful than yesterday, thankfully. I'm off until Tuesday, work from then until Sunday night, and then I'll be off for the rest of the month (except for one backup shift on Jan 26). So, there is light at the end of this long tunnel.

>209 lunacat: Whoa. That durian fruit looks lethal, and I'll bet it doesn't smell very good, either. I may have to reconsider my stance.

>210 alphaorder: Great! I hope that snows when I go to Madison later this month. How much did you get in Milwaukee?

>211 mckait: That nutritionist is seriously wacky. When I told other doctors and nurses about my "nutrition emergency", nearly everyone knew who I was talking about, as they have had difficulty with her as well. The nurse of the baby that I mentioned said that she would kill her if she called her one more time today, and the nutritionist decided to convince the resident working with me today to tell the mother to stop giving her the supplement.

>212 DorsVenabili: Most of the time my work days are busy, sometimes hectic, but only rarely are they as painful as yesterday was. The people who work on the floors generally get along well with each other, and since the hospitalists in my group only work in the one hospital, we're the one set of physicians who most of the nurses and other staff know best and are friendliest with.

Today several of us had a good laugh, after overhearing a 4-5 year old boy ask his nurse if she could bring him some oysters. The nurse told him that she didn't think that he could order oysters from the cafeteria or Food Services. He then asked her if she could cook him some oysters. By that time several of us were listening to the increasingly hilarious conversation, and were hovering nearby. The nurse then said, "Maybe the doctor (meaning me) could cook some oysters for you." I laughed, and told the boy that he didn't want me to cook oysters for him, since I didn't know how. He pouted, and then tromped down the hall, with his highly amused parents, to see if someone could get him some oysters. I don't think we'll get a good customer service rating from that young man.

>213 catarina1: I had no idea that the term MLP was an offensive one; sorry about that! There are far more physician assistants than nurse practitioners working alongside the physicians in the hospital, although several nurses already are nurse practitioners or are working on master's degrees in nursing. My group employs two PAs and one NP, BTW; they are highly valuable to us, and we love and respect all three of them. Most of the other services (GI, Pulmonology, ID, ENT, etc.) also employ PAs and NPs, and I often prefer to speak with them about patients, as they are easier to contact and respond much more quickly than the attendings in most cases.

I'll have to remember to ask Mary, the NP in our group, how she feels about the MLP term. Thanks for educating me about this.

>213 catarina1:-215 I had never heard of the "one pencil" or "two pencil" day until I did my inpatient pediatrics rotation as a third year medical student at Pitt, and no one at Emory (where I completed my pediatrics residency) had heard of the term, although they certainly could identify with it.

>216 LauraBrook: No vodka for me today; I might have another glass of Merlot, but I'm starting to get sleepy, so I'll probably pass on that as well.

Darryl, just put a clothespeg on your nose and eat the durian. It stinks, but it tastes good -- just ask Caro.

No two-pencil days in St. Croix *she says smugly* The description of yours makes me think of some of the episodes of prime TV dramas! I do hope you recover your equanimity...

Wasn't The Good Muslim utterly brilliant?? It definitely made my list of top novels of last year when I read it. I have the predecessor from the library, but keep stalling when it comes to reading it, as I'm afraid it won't live up to the sequel. Irrational, but...

Enjoyed thoroughly your "adventures" at the hospital and your Nutritionist does take the biscuit if that pun is not too heavy to swallow!

Jenny throwing durian at you Darryl could land you on the wards yourself - they are heavy, smelly and sharp. Someone once described the durian experience as akin to eating peaches and cream whilst sitting on the toilet and that does seem to sum it up for me!

Great to see others that love the books of Murakami I don't think I have been disappointed in any of his books, (small admission have bought some remaining ones asa treat to myself).

silence & volcano look like they shd be added to my ever lengthening virtual TBR pile .....

>218 Chatterbox: I didn't realize until last night that The Good Muslim was the sequel to A Golden Age, and that these two books are part of a planned trilogy about Bangladesh from its birth to the present day.

>219 PaulCranswick: That description of durian fruit is one I won't soon forget!

>220 roundballnz: I haven't liked Murakami's later books as much as I have his earlier ones, but they have all been at least good. I haven't started 1Q84 yet, but I hope to get to it next week, after I finish my current work stretch.

I did start The Warmth of Other Suns last night, and I hope to finish it by Monday. I received the first book in my NYRB Book Club subscription, Walkabout by James Vance Marshall, which is a short novel about two young children from Charleston, South Carolina who survived a plane crash in rural Australia but find themselves alone and in danger, until they are befriended by an Aborigine youth. I'll finish that today, and I'll probably start Swamplandia! afterward, for Orange January.

Darryl, thanks for the review of The good Muslim inBelletrista. I enjoyed A golden age more than Good Muslim because I had trouble identifying with/getting my head around Sohail's perspective in A good Muslim. I also read the 2nd one first. I am looking forward to the third book when it is published.

This evening:

A dragon fruit. Sadly not fire-breathing. And not particularly threatening.......it's so pretty! I'm sure if I throw it hard enough, I can inflict damage though.

Darryl, I'll be interested to see what you think of Walkabout. The U Bookstore has three copies on order, so I should be able to purchase it in the next week or two. I love the look and feel of the NYRB editions and I'm enjoying exploring their inventory, even as it develops.

Oh man, that durian fruit description from Paul was brilliant! Howzabout putting that cheese hat on and presenting Whacko Nutritionist with a platter of said fruit? Funny how we use office supplies to express our frustration. It used to be staplers at our office, as in "going in to my office to staple my lips shut".

#200 What?!? No sports talk but, but, but.

There's always a bit of a sports lull for me on the day after the Packers are eliminated and the day when spring training starts. Hopefully, that'll be about a week long again this year.

First of all good luck! So much you have to do! I understand the pressure. I'm an incredibly slow reader so reading 75 books in a year for me is insane (not to mention I'm in grad school so most of my reading doesn't end up here on Librarythings...mostly articles).

However, I would love to make some comments:

#1) You will absolutely love the following in this list: Pnin, Lolita, Darmans, and The Satanic Verses....those are literally some of my favorite books ever written.

#2) I know you have a lot going on here, and I'm not sure if you have read it already, but I would seriously think about getting your nose buried into The Bridge on the Drina. Amazing, amazing book taking place in Bosnia (mostly Sarajevo).

Again good luck! Will check back on your progress ;)

Pshht...never mind, I see you have The Bridge Over the Drina on your TBR list already! Well, enjoy.

>222 markon: You're welcome, Ardene. I haven't read anything about the title or release date to the sequel to The Good Muslim, but I'll certain read it, and A Golden Age, in the near future.

>223 lunacat: I read that dragon fruit tastes similar to a kiwi, which I love. So, fire away!

>224 EBT1002: I've only read a few pages of Walkabout so far, as I've been sleeping most of the afternoon after reading LT posts this morning. I'll start it after dinner, and I should finish it tonight.

>225 tiffin: Howzabout putting that cheese hat on and presenting Whacko Nutritionist with a platter of said fruit?

She'd probably enjoy it, and want to become best friends if I did that. I'll stick with my original plan and avoid her whenever I can.

Funny how we use office supplies to express our frustration.

Right. I've occasionally expressed a desire to seal someone's lips with staples or duct tape. ;-)

>226 lindapanzo: There will always be sports talk on this thread (despite Jenny's bombs). It's been a mixed day for my alma maters so far; Pitt's men's basketball lost its sixth straight game, on the road to Marquette, and Rutgers was blown out by West Virginia. On the women's side, #8 Rutgers beat #16 Louisville in overtime, to improve to 15-2. The Scarlet Knights will be tested by a four game stretch against nationally ranked teams in the Big East, including back to back games with #2 Notre Dame and #3 UConn.

The Saints are mounting a comeback against the 49ers, after spotting the San Franciscans 17 points. It's now 17-14 Niners, heading toward halftime.

I'll be glued to the set for tomorrow afternoon's Giants-Packers game. Although the game will be in frigid Green Bay, I'm feeling good about this one, as this year's Giants team seems eerily similar to the 2007 club that won three playoff games on the road (including an upset of the Packers in Green Bay) before beating the undefeated and heavily favored Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

>227 SweetbriarPoet: Thanks for visiting my thread, Taryn! I'm very eager to read Pnin, Lolita, Darkmans and The Satanic Verses, along with A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel, the Amos Oz novels My Michael and The Same Sea, and the Malcolm X biography.

>228 SweetbriarPoet: I'll definitely read The Bridge Over the Drina between now and March, for the Reading Globally 1st quarter theme read on The Balkans & Turkey, and I may bring it with me when I visit my friends in Wisconsin in two weeks.

Wow. The game between the Saints and 49ers was one of the most memorable ones I've ever seen, with four lead changes in the last four minutes of the game. The teams alternated touchdowns in the last four possessions (not counting the Saints' last gasp play at the end of the game), punctuated by the 49ers' winning TD pass with 9 seconds left, which earned them an amazing 36-32 win.

The game between New England and Denver won't be anywhere near as good; the Patriots have a 14-0 lead, midway through the first quarter. The Tim Tebow Magical Mystery Tour ends tonight.

Well, there were four years between Anam's first two books, and The Good Muslim came out last year, so we may have a while to wait for the final volume, alas. Can't wait to see where she takes the story.

I did wonder what the football game was! I could hear some guy in the condo complex screaming at the top of his lungs, everything from "oh no, get outta there!!" to " touchdown!" I couldn't hear the TV, so it was only when I heard the latter scream that I deduced the existence of the football team and stopped worrying about calling 911!! (It's a biggish complex, and everyone has screen doors to balconies and lanai areas outside, so if someone has friends over, or is watching something on TV loudly, etc, we all get to share... :-)

#230 I was wrapped up in a book but pulled my nose out long enough to watch and appreciate the last few minutes in the 49ers/Saints game. That was an amazing finish.

I just read Walkabout this afternoon and found it quite dated. I didn't like the interaction between the two children and the aboriginal boy and the writing about the flora and fauna of the area couldn't make up for that. I felt the writer was trying too hard with his agenda rather than telling a story.
Anyway it was a quick read and I shall follow up with something that feels more authentic such as The Nargun and The Stars.

As predicted, the Patriots-Broncos game was a blowout. The Patriots' quarterback, Tom Brady, set a playoff record with 5 touchdown passes in the first half, and tied the record for touchdown passes in a game (6), as New England trounced Denver, 45-10. Somewhere in Melbourne, Caroline is smiling contentedly.

>231 Chatterbox: I agree; I'll be very eager to read the sequel to The Good Muslim.

>232 lindapanzo: That was one of the best ends to a playoff game that I've ever seen. I was following it sporadically until the last five minutes. You knew that the Saints could put up bunches of points in a hurry, but I never would have expected the 49ers to match them TD for TD.

>233 avatiakh: I completely agree, Kerry. It was dated, repetitive, and ultimately disappointing to me. It was a curious choice for the first book of the NYRB Book Club; I do hope that the books improve as the year progresses. I'll review it later this morning, after I make an early morning run for breakfast and groceries.

#234 - I was a bit bummed out that the Saints lost, but it was a good game. The 49ers are in my division and I really can't stand Jim Harbaugh. I'm waiting for his head to explode on the sidelines one of these days. That guy gets too jazzed up...and not in a likable Herm Edwards kind of way.

just keeping up..

Darryl- I also started The Warmth of Other Suns. Wow. I think this will qualify as narrative nonfiction, at it's most effective. I love the approach she takes, focusing on 3 individuals to tell this sweeping story. This is excellent stuff but Lord, is it sad & gut-wrenching at times.
And speaking of gut-wrenching I saw bits of the Denver/NE game. Broncos way out of their league.

Book #5: Walkabout by James Vance Marshall



My rating:

Purchased 12/31/11 (NYRB Book Club subscription), received 1/8/12

This novel was written by Donald G. Payne by 1959, who used the pseudonym James Vance Marshall, in honor of a man who lived in the outback of Australia and collaborated with Payne in its creation. Walkabout did not receive much attention until 1971, after a movie based on the book, but not faithful to it, was released, to critical acclaim.

Eleven year old Mary and her eight year old brother Peter are residents of Charleston, South Carolina who find themselves stranded after their Adelaide-bound plane has crashed and exploded in the desert of the Northern Territory of Australia. They are only lightly injured, but the captain and navigating officer, the only other people on the plane, were killed. The two struggle to find water or food, until they encounter a naked Aborigine boy, who is performing a walkabout, a ritual essential for manhood in his tribe. The unnamed boy has never seen white people, and is fascinated by them. Peter almost immediately bonds with the Aborigine, despite their lack of a shared language; the older Mary, who is more familiar with the customs of the Jim Crow South, is repulsed by the strange black boy, but she realizes that he and her brother must rely on him in order to survive.

Peter and Mary follow the boy, who takes them under his wing and shows the "amazingly helpless" pair how to search for water, and hunt for and cook food. The boys become playmates and comrades, while the half-child half-adult Mary maintains her distance while harboring jealousy for her brother's attachment to the Aborigine, his lack of reliance upon her, and her desire to join them in their childish games. A simple misunderstanding between Mary and the Aborigine leads to a tragic consequence, which places all of their lives in jeopardy.

I found Walkabout to be a mildly enjoyable though repetitive and heavy-handed story about cultural misunderstandings and similarities, which can best be thought of as a dated young adult novel. The novel shines in its descriptions of the flora and fauna of the Australian outback, but the structure of the story and the portrayal of the three characters was overly simplified and ultimately disappointing.

>235 DorsVenabili: I like both teams, but I'm not a big fan of either one, so I wasn't elated or disappointed by the outcome, and I enjoyed the frantic finish. I think the opinions of the rabid anti-Tebow, anti-Florida people I work with must have rubbed off on me, as I was glad that the Broncos were humiliated by the Patriots.

I don't dislike Jim Harbaugh, and I like him infinitely better than the Ryan brothers. I also disliked their father, Buddy Ryan, even when he was the Eagles' head coach.

>236 mckait: Hi, Kath! I haven't been keeping up well with most threads this month; hopefully I can catch up sometime next week.

>237 msf59: I'm glad that you're enjoying The Warmth of Other Suns so far, Mark. I almost certainly won't finish it until sometime next week, but hopefully before I leave for Madison the Saturday after next.

After last night's debacle I'm even more amazed that the Broncos beat the Steelers.

This is today's Poem-A-Day, from the Academy of American Poets. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.



London Snow by Robert Bridges

When men were all asleep the snow came flying,
In large white flakes falling on the city brown,
Stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying,
Hushing the latest traffic of the drowsy town;
Deadening, muffling, stifling its murmurs failing;
Lazily and incessantly floating down and down:
Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing;
Hiding difference, making unevenness even,
Into angles and crevices softly drifting and sailing.
All night it fell, and when full inches seven
It lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,
The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven;
And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness
Of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare:
The eye marvelled—marvelled at the dazzling whiteness;
The ear hearkened to the stillness of the solemn air;
No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling,
And the busy morning cries came thin and spare.
Then boys I heard, as they went to school, calling,
They gathered up the crystal manna to freeze
Their tongues with tasting, their hands with snowballing;
Or rioted in a drift, plunging up to the knees;
Or peering up from under the white-mossed wonder,
"O look at the trees!" they cried, "O look at the trees!"
With lessened load a few carts creak and blunder,
Following along the white deserted way,
A country company long dispersed asunder:
When now already the sun, in pale display
Standing by Paul’s high dome, spread forth below
His sparkling beams, and awoke the stir of the day.
For now doors open, and war is waged with the snow;
And trains of sombre men, past tale of number,
Tread long brown paths, as toward their toil they go:
But even for them awhile no cares encumber
Their minds diverted; the daily word is unspoken,
The daily thoughts of labor and sorrow slumber
At the sight of the beauty that greets them, for the charm they have broken.

Darryl, that was beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing. It should be a good game today, I'm looking forward to it. And, of course, Go Pack Go!

Enjoy your Sunday!

What a fine poem! Thank you.

the more I talk about sports, the more likely that at least two of my main tormentors, Jenny and Ilana, will avoid this thread. I think I'll keep it up.

Seems Jenny's been doing a fine job of getting back at you for your comment. Me, my head is throbbing too much to think up a clever retort right now. But I won't forget you said that. :-P

I'm really sorry to hear Walkabout was a disappointment to you and Kerry. I was looking forward to it's arrival in the mail and now I'm not sure what to think, but I guess I'll find out for myself sooner or later.

Darryl, I loved the poem and the picture. We may be getting our first real snow of this winter overnight tonight so it was very timely for me.

Hi Darryl.
The game between the Saints and 49ers was one of the most memorable ones I've ever seen --- I'm in full agreement. I was rooting for SF (without much fervor) but in the end the only thing I cared about was how exciting it was. I will also be watching this afternoon's showdown between GB & your Giants. Sorry that we're on opposite sides of the cheering fence on this one.

Your review of Walkabout is great - and may provide my badly overused credit card with a break. There are too many 4+ books out there to spend time on a disappointment. I know I might react differently than you, but at least you've encouraged me to give it a gook look before taking it to the check out counter!

Wonderful poem. Thanks for sharing.

>241 LauraBrook: No Pack No!

>242 sibylline: You're welcome, Lucy.

>243 Smiler69: Sorry to hear about your bad headache, Ilana. I hope that it goes away soon (and that you forget all about that comment).

>244 phebj: Thanks, Pat. There were two photos of St. Paul's Cathedral in the snow that I liked better, but they were copyrighted. I'm looking forward to seeing snow in Madison, WI the week after next.

>245 EBT1002: My friends from Louisiana are in despair after that heartbreaking loss, based on their comments on Facebook. Hopefully I won't be equally as disappointed later today.

I don't think that anyone is with me in rooting for the Giants; Richard is a Jets fan, and I'm not sure which team Tad and the other metro New Yorkers favor.

Kerry and I have essentially identical views about Walkabout, which was a curious choice for the first NYRB Book Club selection. There are two books by Elizabeth Taylor that will be published by NYRB Classics next month, A Game of Hide and Seek and Angel, so one of them will probably be the next book I receive.

ETA: The Baltimore Ravens just defeated the Houston Texans 20-13, so the Ravens will travel to New England to face the Patriots next weekend.

Perhaps being hit by a few pineapple will work better? If I'm feeling kind, I will throw pineapple chunks and hope the acid dissuades you. If not............

>247 kidzdoc: - I'm rooting for the Giants!!

>248 lunacat: Bleh. I hate pineapple.

>249 katiekrug: Great! Thanks, Katie.

The Giants are looking good so far, with a FG and a TD in their first two possessions, but Green Bay's offense also looks good. It's 10-3 New York, late in the first quarter.

On to part 2!

Thanks for the poem Daryyl!