Paul C with books and more in 2014 Part 9

The first "war" that I grew up through was the Falklands War a then quite unequal struggle between Britain and Argentina almost certainly manufactured by the Thatcher government to distract a digruntled public in the UK. It worked as she went from certain electoral defeat to a landslide victory in the short months following the feat of arms visited upon Port Stanley. Here is the old warmonger lapping it up.

The reason I put up Maggie and the Falklands relates to the last thread and the Chinese poem exhibited up top. I promised Abby that I would put my own answer to that poem and here it is.
I was and remain anti-war and very much left of centre in politics and this is reflected in every aspect of my life. Not surprisingly therefore as a 16 year old I was not Mrs. T.'s biggest supporter. Apologies for the naivety of tone from a callow youth.

Protest in the Fourth Year of Thatcher (AD 1983)

The hills and rivers of a distant island
You have made your battleground.
Dismay will be procured through election.
The shrill voice of the nation
Reeks distinction as a warmonger;
An iron lady with an iron heart -
The crayfish needn’t seek happiness in the wicker-basket.
For a poor woman’s reputation
Is made from a few thousand conscripted corpses -
Let us turn them out.

PC (early 1983) written in the style of
Protest in the Sixth Year of Chien Fu by Ts'ao Sung (AD 839)

2014 Reading

January
1. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe (1966) 150 pp
2. Touch Wood: Poems and a Story by Dannie Abse (2002) 88pp
3. My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918) 248pp
4. 77 Dream Songs by John Berryman (1964) 84 pp
5. Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith (1936) 252 pp
6. The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak (2011) 191 pp
7. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith (1892) 171 pp
8. Fools of Fortune by William Trevor (1983) 207 pp
9. Collected Poems 1951-2000 by Charles Causley (2000) 421 pp
10. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War by Christopher Clark (2012) 562 pp
11. Landscape at the End of the Century by Stephen Dunn (1991) 94 pp
12. North From Rome by Helen MacInnes (1958) 394 pp
13. Dream Work by Mary Oliver (1986) 89 pp
14. David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky (1929) 159 pp

Best of 2014

Fiction
David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky
Fools of Fortune by William Trevor
My Antonia by Willa Cather

Poetry
Touch Wood: Poems and a Story by Dannie Abse
77 Dream Songs by John Berryman

Non-Fiction
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War by Christopher Clark

Planned reading in January: 14 in the first month of 14

The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak (2011)READ
Touch Wood: Poems and a Story by Dannie Abse (2002) READ
Collected Poems of Charles Causley by Charles Causley (2000) READ
77 Dream Songs by John Berryman (1964) READ
Dream Work by Mary Oliver (1986) READ
Landscape at the End of the Century by Stephen Dunn (1991)READ
Man of the People by Chinua Achebe (1966) READ
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith (1936) READ
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War by Christopher Clark (2012)READ
My Antonia by Willa Cather (1918) READ
Fools of Fortune by William Trevor (1983) READ
David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky (1929) READ
North from Rome by Helen MacInnes (1958) READ
Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith (1892) READ

Current Reading

Category Challenge 14 for 14

Pyramid Challenge

1 World War One (2 READ)
2 Yorkshire Writers (1 READ)
3 Writers new to me (4 READ)
4 Books about the Holocaust
5 Books from the first edition of 1001 books (2 READ)
6 Ahem, Science Fiction and Fantasy
7 Series followed
8 Biographies
9 Books on the Shelves since 2012
10 Gifts from friends
11 Re-reads
12 Nobel contenders (1 READ)
13 Short Story Collections
14 Vintage Crime/Thrillers (1 READ)

150 Years of Reading Bold Will Be Years I have Finished This Year

The Object is to read one book from each year from 1865 to 2014 all in 2014. No author to be repeated:

1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874,
1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884,
1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894,
1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904,
1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914,
1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924
1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934,
1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944,
1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954,
1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964,
1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974
1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984,
1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994,
1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

Stateside Challenge

In addition to Mark's American Author challenge I am trying to read a book by an author born in each of the US states + DC + one american born overseas:

1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Arizona
4. Arkansas
5. California
6. Colorado
7. Connecticut
8. Delaware
9. Florida
10. Georgia
11. Hawaii
12. Idaho
13. Illinois
14. Indiana
15. Iowa
16. Kansas
17. Kentucky
18. Louisiana
19. Maine
20. Maryland
21. Massachusetts
22. Michigan
23. Minnesota
24. Mississippi
25. Missouri
26. Montana
27. Nebraska
28. Nevada
29. New Hampshire
30. New Jersey
31. New Mexico
32. New York - Landscape at the End of the Century by Stephen Dunn
33. North Carolina
34. North Dakota
35. Ohio - Dream Work by Mary Oliver
36. Oklahoma - 77 Dream Songs by John Berryman
37. Oregon
38. Pennsylvania - The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
39. Rhode Island
40. South Carolina
41. South Dakota
42. Tennessee
43. Texas
44. Utah
45. Vermont
46. Virginia - My Antonia by Willa Cather
47. Washington
48. West Virginia
49. Wisconsin
50. Wyoming
51. DC
52. American born outside USA

TBR Records

Physical Books on Shelves 1/1/14 = 2,690
Added to 2014 = 75
Read in 2014 = 14
Revised TBR Books = 2,751

Pages to read 1/1/14 = 974,030
Pages added in 2014 = 25,672
Pages read in 2014 = 3,106
Revised Pages to read = 996,596

Total Kindle E Books to Read = 3,873
Read in 2014 = 0
Added in 2014 = 0
Revised Kindle Books to Read = 3,873

Total TBR = 6,617 books

Series List:

Please refer to my page on fict-fact

http://www.fictfact.com/list/PaulCranswick/19440/ALL

NOBEL CHALLENGE (This year's read additions in bold)

NOBEL WINNERS READ WITH FAVOURITE WORK READ SO FAR:
2013 Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro
2011 The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtromer
2010 The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa
2009 The Appointment by Herta Muller
2007 The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
2006 Snow by Orhan Pamuk
2005 The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
2003 The Master of Petersburg by J.M.Coetzee
2001 A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
1998 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago
1997 Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo
1995 Station Island by Seamus Heaney
1994 A Quiet Life by Kenzaburo Oe
1992 Selected Poems by Derek Walcott
1991 July's People by Nadine Gordimer
1988 Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
1987 On Grief and Reason by Joseph Brodsky
1985 The Flanders Road by Claude Simon
1983 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1982 A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1976 Herzog by Saul Bellow
1972 Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll
1971 The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda
1970 Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1968 Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata
1964 The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
1962 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
1961 Bridge On the Drina by Ivo Andric
1958 Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
1957 The Plague by Albert Camus
1955 The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness
1954 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
1953 History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill
1952 Knot of Vipers by Francois Mauriac
1951 Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist
1949 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1948 The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
1947 The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
1946 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
1938 The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
1932 A Man of Property by John Galsworthy
1930 Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1925 Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
1923 Collected Poems by W.B. Yeats
1921 And the Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France
1913 He (Shey) by Rabindranath Tagore
1907 Kim by Rudyard Kipling

UNREAD NOBEL WINNERS ON THE SHELVES

2012 Red Sorghum by Mo Yan
2008 The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio
2004 The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
2002 Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz
2000 Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
1999 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
1996 Poems New and Collected by Wislawa Szymborska
1993 Jazz by Toni Morrison
1990 The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
1989 The Family of Pascual Duarte by Camilo Jose Cela
1986 Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
1984 The Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert by Jaroslav Seifert
1981 Kafka's Other Trial by Elias Canetti
1978 Enemies : A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1973 Voss by Patrick White
1969 Molloy by Samuel Beckett
1966 A Book That Was Lost by S.Y. Agnon
1965 And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov
1950 A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
1939 The Maid Silja by F.E. Sillanpaa
1936 A Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
1934 Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello
1933 The Village by Ivan Bunin
1929 Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
1928 Kristin Lavransdatter : 1 The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
1926 Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda
1920 Hunger by Knut Hamsun
1909 The Saga of Gosta Berling by Selma Lagerlof
1905 Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

So far read 47 laureates
29 laureates unread on the shelves
35 laureates whose works neither owned not read.

Hello!

Marianne cleans up! Please PM me your address and I'll get my buddies at Book Depo to send you something nice in February.

*Polishes fingernails on shirt front* Aw shucks!

Nice poem Paul. Keep looking at pictures of Thatcher, trying to see if there are any latent signs of her coming dementia. Always convinced Mrs. Reagan and other top advisors did their best to hide signs of Ronnie's own decline.

That poem as a 16-year old boy should make you proud, Paul. Congratulations on your new thread!

Marianne - *smirks*
Convinced she was as crazy as a coot from pretty early on.

Diana - I suppose I was almost as precocious as I was obnoxious in those days. It is comical that my own father who regulars will know I am fairly irrevocably estranged from was one of Mrs. Thatcher's biggest supporters. He fought and, to be fair, worked very hard to shed his working class roots whilst I somewhat gloried in my own. I am proud to come from hard-working working-class stock and it makes me appreciate all the more the little luxuries I can lavish upon SWMBO and the tribe nowadays. I don't think that the staff at the office think of "Mr Paul" as the Boss so much as a benevolent uncle. That is probably why in ten years only three of my (non-driving) staff have left my employ.

Crazy as a coot - that's putting it pretty succinctly! I should use that phrase more often!

Wow, what a poem from the young Cranswick! You tell that saucy minx!

(I can't think of Madam Maggie in any way other than as a 'saucy minx' after Love Actually.)

Marianne - I think it suited her parliamentary style somewhat.

Amber - I bet that was just the thought that sprung into the minds of the sailors on the General Belgrano or HMS Sheffield as the torpedoes hit home. xx

Zing!
More than a few of us Yanks have similar feelings toward a certain Bush (or two, really). Or, honestly and to be quite fair, quite a lot of the past US presidents. We seem to feel that we need our thumbs in so many pies.

Amber - In perfect seriousness the decision to commit your nation to war and condemn some of your countrymen and some of those from another nation to death in honour or service to the nation is one which must be an agonising one to take. The parallels between Bush Junior and Mrs. T are that one did it with the spurs from his cowboy boots a-jangling and the other to prove that her testicles were more fulsome than those of the other members of her cabinet. Both were not the right reason.

Agreed.

I can't imagine being in a position to have to make such decisions, though. I'm not nearly smart enough nor world-wise enough even to contemplate such a thing; my simpleton view is that going to war is never justified, but I suspect that world affairs are a bit more complex than that...

Is war ever justified? There is a biggie. IMO the rooting out of Osama from Afganistan and the cleansing of the larvae he was birthing there was justified; the second Gulf War was not - just in to slay the dragon that had been nurtured by the would-be slayers.

Hey Paul, peacefully tiptoeing in to say hi. War is only personally justified when the hubsters pulls the blankets toward his side.

Hahaha Lynda. Book shopping of course is cause for the outbreak of hostilities in my household but only on the rare occasion that I get caught in flagrante.

LOL

Lovely new thread you've got here, Paul. I'm pretty much a raging pacifist myself, but I agree that there can be such a thing as a "just war" as the philosophers term it, and I reckon WWII and the post 9/11 conflict in Afghanistan meet the criteria. However, the expansion to Iraq most definitely was not, and neither is the current state of affairs in Afghanistan. Purely my own opinion, of course.

Wow! Those are powerful closing lines in the poem, Paul. Gave me shivers this morning. Thank you for sharing.

Lovely new thread. :) *waves*

Happy new thread, Paul! Impressed by the poem you wrote at such a tender age. Also impressed that you have almost made it through your list of planned reads for January - WahHOO for you!

Jean - I am going to start one of your splendid gifts today - Sleeper's Wake. xx

Julia - World War 2 could have probably been avoided had World War 1 not been settled in the manner it was.

Faith - Thank you. I don't remember being quite that angry although it was a time when I was reading and writing a lot from 14 to 18 (and through major exams) I read 1,000 books and wrote well over a thousand poems much of which I burned for the good of the language.

Tam - Thanks and waves right back at yer.

Almost there Mamie but not quite. I'm not going to do the Trollope but I will get to 14 all the same.
Keats didn't pass 25; Shelley snuffed it at 29 and Byron was done and dusted at 36. All with a huge body of work from their teens. I am not classing myself with those high-falutin' fellows (I am much better at self-preservation after all) as a mere scribbler but none of those chaps wrote anything better than the stuff they jotted down when it was still debatable whether it shoud be short or long trousers.

Really like the poem! I can't believe you have another thread up and running already. And, by the way, you don't need a sonic screwdriver - I like you just the way you are. (though a sonic screwdriver would be cool) You definitely wrote more poetry than me, I could count the number of poems I have written on my fingers and toes.

Abby - We had a friend who married a workmate of Hani back in the day. He had eleven fingers and hasn't spoken to me for several years. Ever since I bought him a pair of gloves for Christmas.

I am very sorry to hear that. I'm sure that he will eventually forgive you.

LOL Paul. I think I couldn't stop laughing if I were him.

Don't take me seriously Abby; I didn't really give him the gloves but the very thought of it tickled me to death year on year.

Diana - I would see the funny side too, I'm sure. My english friend has a habit of making jokes about my ability to out-eat anyone he knows and the absence of a discernible neck on my shoulders but I laugh it off as well as you are able to without a neck.

Dear One!!!

It is always interesting to visit here. I certainly agree with you regarding the manufacture of war in order to get the masses to look away from disgruntlement regarding terrible policies and desperate economic games, and, to move the sea shells in a carnival like atmosphere to push the eye along to something else.

Unemployment off the charts and soaring, middle class struggling, jobs lost by thousands and thousands every day, Obama suddenly talks of a possible invasion of Syria. What?????? Whether you like him or not, voted for him or not, the man who rallied against Bush and "his war" and strongly, adamantly, unyieldingly stated when running for president, he would always sit down and talk before going to war, made me shake my head in wonderment when suddenly he changes the game plan????

And, in order to divert media headlines at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton ordered a tomahawk missile strike to an Afghanistan factory that was deemed a threat...it turned out it was an aspirin factory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile_strikes_on_Afghanistan_and_Sudan_(Au...

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With a love of Russian history, your note of The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 holds special interest to me. Russia's involvement in WWI added to the 1917 revolution toppling Tsarist rule.

The book is now on the tbr pile.

Happy Day to you!

Oh good! I was laughing my head off but was trying to be sensitive. Now i'm grinning more than ever! You got me, congrats!

Linda - Politicians moving along sea shells; I like that. I think that the Russian perspectives in Christopher Clark's otherwise excellent book were probably the weakest parts but still fascinating.

Abby - I am very very rarely a sadist but often the masochist - You've seen my wife right?!

#33 by @PaulCranswick> oh good. I'll be interested in what you think of it.

haha, yes I have. I should have known that you were pulling my leg. You gave the start of my day a huge happy burst though. *smooch*

Jean - Looks great. I'm sure I'll love it.

Abby - You have made the whole group a tad more enjoyable this January so I'll happily take the plaudits for a single day. xx

All of your talk of the morality of war makes me think of The Fog of War by Errol Morris. Should I ever teach a class of foreign affairs, at least one class will be devoted to The Fog of War and Robert McNamara's lessons. If you have not seen it I would recommend giving it try.

I haven't heard of that one Erik but I shall certainly look out for it henceforward.

McNamara, while talking about the fire bombing of Japan in WWII, discusses a conversation he had with Curtis LeMay, the commanding officer directing the bombing: "LeMay said, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

McNamara became a caricature because of Vietnam. I certainly bought into the caricature until I watched The Fog of War.

An acute and certainly accurate observation Erik. What was visited upon Dresden for example, was it really necessary with the war already won?

Happy new thread, Paul!

From thread 8

succinctly - I had to seek out what that one means! (Beknopt)

And about the limericks. I'm very honoured that you took the time to write me one.

One thing: I' not from the Club Read but from the ROOT challenge.



But that is a small difference!

Happy new thread, Paul!

Nothing to do with anything written here. I just skimmed the posts in thread 9

From thread 8

succinctly - I had to seek out what that one means! (Beknopt)

And about the limericks. I'm very honoured that you took the time to write me one.

One thing: I' not from the Club Read but from the ROOT challenge.

But that is a small difference!

Two very similar posts Connie and both are very welcome. The Club Read was, shall we say, artistic licence. xx

>18 PaulCranswick: It is comical that my own father who regulars will know I am fairly irrevocably estranged from was one of Mrs. Thatcher's biggest supporters.
Makes me like you more, and him less :)

"I didn't really give him the gloves".....LOL

So Obama is thinking of war against Syria? Is there oil there or something......it surely isn't for humanitarian reasons. *cynic*

Megan - We had more arguments about Mrs T. than almost anything else.

When domestic politics become too difficult to handle a rallying point is to pick a fight overseas for all to rally round. Obama should be better than this IF IT IS TRUE. USA have too few friends already in the middle east and can do without any further entanglements.

Isn't Obama on his last stand anyway (can US presidents be elected more than twice?). I suppose it could rally support for his party - it seems inexplicably to have worked for the last 3 presidents.

When domestic politics become too difficult to handle...
become? *snerk* Poor Obama has been plagued by troubles. Damn recession. Damn gun lobbyists. Damn healthcare website. Damn shutdowns. Damn GOP. Damn poor masses.....

Oeps, i did it again! Sorry Paul! but it takes you a post further towards thread 10!

>53 LovingLit:. So Obama is thinking of war against Syria?

No, Obama is not thinking of war against anyone; and no, US presidents cannot serve more than two terms. So he's done. Bye, bye, Obama.

Hi Paul, great new thread mate. Just been reading about the shenanigans going on at Elland Road, it really is becoming a soap opera and making the club a laughing stock, feel sorry for McDermott, players and the fans, and all this from a Red. Hope you and the tribe are well and hope the situation at Elland Road sorts itself out.

That's a wonderful photo of Maggie and the boys! And the poem written by 16-year-old you is rather remarkable.

Good discussion here, as usual. I won't wade into the political fray, though.

I have both Fools of Fortune and The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War on my wish list.

Your poem from your teenage years was quite powerful Paul. I remember feeling quite intense about politics as a teen but I certainly never wrote anything about those feelings. Kudos to you.

So what's your status with Can you Forgive Her? ?

Paul what a wonderful poem. I remember that manufactured war very well along with the US led invasion in Grenada. Oh what times we had in 1983.

>57 labwriter: right-o. Thanks. :)

^ I remember 1983 like it was yesterday. I was 7 and we were living in Chile- a bit less afraid of Pinochet than we were of straying into Argentina where New Zealanders were persona non grata on account of the Union Jack on our flag.

Megan - I am vaguely disappointed by Obama. I don't think that he will put american troops into Syria but I remember the thrill of his inaugeration speeches and he has been unable to deliver on that promise of hope.

Connie - Nine threads a month if kept up for the whole year would probably result in my having to take the whole of 2015 off to recover!

Yeah, I agree Becky. I don't see him soiling his reputation by such an act of folly. It is a shame this 2 strikes and out rule you have over there (lucky, plucky FDR got around it of course) - we could still have had Bill and his lollipop by now. I dare say we would have had no 2nd Gulf War either.

John - Needless to say mate, I cringe and groan every time I refresh for news on my club. McDermott has made mistakes as manager (but who doesn't) but he comes across as a passionate, loyal and honorable man and I am proud at least to hav a manager of his ilk to steer us through these choppy waters. I hope the italian fellow doesn't take over as it will be chaotic.
By the way I was saddened to read that Graham Stevenson passed away recently following a stroke. He played a few years at Nostell and I took him out in the nets a time or two and got cleaned up by him a time or three. Batted alongside him once or twice. Brilliant cricketer and great fun guy.

Ellen - I am not trying to get the wheels of a political discussion going either my dear. War is bad should not be a political stance methinks.

Thanks Heidi. Status is "not moving" . It will be a February book now.

Roberta - Those days do shine brightly in my memory too. Very. Formative.

Megan - Interesting that you mention that as I did read somewhere of moves to remove the Union Jack from its little spot in the NZ flag??

I'm fairly disappointed in Obama myself. But I don't put all the blame on his shoulders. This Congress has passed the least amount of legislation in its entire history. Our government is at a standstill. They simply can't get *anything* done.

Yeah Morphy and I don't blame him completely either, but he got elected originally on the platform of YES WE CAN. Unfortunately he couldn't.

>64 PaulCranswick: Flag talk = election year. Mindless distractions. Clever politicking. Same as Obama.

ETA: I still *heart* Obama though....

Megan - I would be surprised if the flag was altered I must say.

I think Obama was by far in a way the best choice the country had been presented with and I would prefer him over all possible options at the moment.

Paul, I think high school is the age when a lot of us wrote poetry!

Roni; the difference being that most, upon graduation, thankfully stopped.

Hi Paul, FDR didn't exactly get around the two-term rule. The amendment to the Constitution to limit the Presidential term didn't pass until 1947. Before that, there was no limit.

Bonnie - I did know that one actually but the convention had always been two terms and out and it is because of FDR conveniently bowing to public demand and staying on that the amendment to the constitution was necessary. In a democracy I don't see the benefit of its introduction to be honest other than as a safeguard against abuse of powerand/or monarchy.

Of course a number of Presidents went against the precedents set by Washington and Jefferson including Cleveland, Grant and Wilson (all unsuccesfully) and there has been a constant stream of legislation to attempt its repeal in recent years. Whilst it is true that Maine first proposed the amendment (22nd) in 1947, it was only ratified in 1951.

Jeez Paul - not another thread! Puff puff **waves and wishes a great weekend to mon cher**

Dear Prue - Thanks my dear lovely to see you coming out of the shade to post!

12.

North From Rome by Helen MacInnes

Date of Publication : 1958 (12/150)
USA State : N/A
Category Challenge : Vintage Thrillers (1)

Not one of Ms. MacInnes' very best but passages of the descriptive writing reveal a talent superior to much of the pulp fiction of the time.

Lammiter is a playwright and his fiancee has broken off their engagement on a trip to Rome. She has taken up with a minor noble who seems to have a dodgy drug involved lifestyle (he sells the stuff and doesn't smoke or inject it).

Lammiter soon realises that there is more to the story than he expected with communist plots and a host of characters he doesn't know can be trusted or not.

Predictable and fairly formulaic with a disconcertingly shallow plot the whole thing is saved from shamble by the writer occasionally showing glimpses of the talent that she didn't seem to want to bestow upon this work in great profusion.

Good job I have read and enjoyed other work by her or I would have wondered what the fuss had been about.

5/10

Pages this Book : 394

Total Pages in completed books in 2014: 2,858

66 > I think to do that he needed majority in all the 'houses' of the USA Political system .....

Alex - Checks and balances have become a tool to stultify the process and to ensure that nothing effectively gets done.

#76> Or an opposition party that isn't completely insane and becoming overrun by nutjobs and racists in positions of power and influence. I personally know plenty of reasonable Republicans, but none of them are in office.

Julia - Hahaha I seem to recall this subject came up about a year ago over the budgetary impasse. I am a Republican and proud to declare to all who care to take note. For me Republican is anti-monarchist (I am not American, don't forget, where the term has been misappropriated to stand for Conservatism). I am in addition a committed socialist for whom a fair and just society that takes care of those who need the protection of the State but doesn't prevent one from enjoying the reasonable benefits and fruits of their labours and enterprise. A State that prevents people being victimised because of the colour of the skin, their religious affiliations or non-affiliations, their gender, their age, their sexual orientation and their height and girth (last ones give me an equal break too!). A State that treats with compassion those who falter and those who fall ill; those who are physically incapable of managing unaided and those who have served their time and that does so without enquiring first whether you have insurance against mishap or can afford to pay for the State to do its job.

A Cadbury's Creme Egg.

Richard - sticky-sweet memories of childhood! Gnaw off the top of the chocolate and scoop out the yolk and white with tongue; the contents viscously honeyed with every molecule of candied egg a delight on the palate.

Thanks for that dear fellow; helps my diet no end.

13. Dream Work by Mary Oliver

Date of Publication: 1986 (13/150)
USA State : Ohio (5/52)

A quiet hour last night and then a reflective afternoon, following tomato soup I augmented by onions fried until soft and overripe red capsicum to add its sweet kiss to my palate, I was then caressed by the gentle, lulling words of Mary Oliver.

These poems gleaned from long, windswept walks in Provincetown, Massachusetts display an acute perception of the natural surroundings and woman's place within it. I say "woman" because her images are unavoidably imbued with the feminine - even the most maculine beast of the field, or the sky, or the pond, or the trees, or the hedge-bottoms is iunmistably cast with a womanly grace.

Time, movement and ageing with the recurring cycle of the seasons in nature underpinning everything are her watchwords. Here is the opening of "Two Kinds of Deliverance"

Last night the geese came back,
slanting fast
from the blossom of the rising moon down
to the black pond. A muskrat
swimming in the twilight saw them and hurried

to the secret lodges to tell everyone
spring had come.

And so it had.
By morning when I went out
the last of the ice had disappeared, blackbirds
sang on the shores. Every year
the geese, returning,
do this, I don't
know how.


She can be brutal about nature too and its grim realities in a coastal setting. This is the beginning of "The Shark"


The domed head rose above the water, white
as a spill of milk. It had taken the hook. It swirled,
and all they could see then was the grinding
and breaking of water, its thrashing, the teeth
in the grin and grotto of its impossible mouth.
The line they refused to cut ran down like a birth cord
Into the packed and strategic muscles.
The sun shone.


There is a thoughtfulness here and a stillness that is tempered and interrupted by the sudden squalls and frenzy of nature and it makes for pleasurable poetry.

8/10

Pages this book : 89

Total Pages in finished books 2014 : 2,947

Checking in, just a day late.

>68 PaulCranswick:: Agreed. It's been frustrating to watch Obama try to get stuff done only to be blocked by a blind and stubborn opposition in congress.

As to term limits, if President Bartlett hadn't had MS, I would have loved to have seen him in office for more than 2 terms...oh, wait,...

Sigh.

Nina - I don't see that you're late at all my dear. Hope you are enjoying the new year festivities in Singapore.

Amber - Hahahaha. I am considered too Left Wing by some but Bartlett was too West Wing for me. xx

I'd tell you that I have a thing for Toby Ziegler, but that would just give you more reason to tease me about my, um, unconventional crushes. Oh, wait... Dang.

Mmmm Amber.......that would be, erm, unconventional.

#80 -- Ooh, I'll take one of those! My traditional Easter morning breakfast.

Gong Xi Fa Choi

Happy Chinese New Year and happy new(ish) thread Paul.

Foggi - I cannot get those in Malaysia and miss them terribly.

Nina - Thank you. Horse is my year so hopefully this is a good one.

Calm - Thanks my dear. 9 full threads in a month is the most I have ever achieved so I am quite pleased with that, I must say.

I didn't even think that the book store might be closed today for New Year celebrations.

Happy New Year Paul!

>63 PaulCranswick:. we could still have had Bill and his lollipop by now

I just fell off my chair laughing.

>86 scaifea: Love Amber's crush on Toby Zeigler. My DH has a little man crush on Josh. "What would Josh Do?" is a familiar refrain in our household. ;-)

The good thing Roberta about Kuala Lumpur during Chinese New Year is that the city is quiet and free from traffic. In the large malls the shops remain open in the main too.

Becky - I was worried reading it back that it was perhaps a little too risque.

Marianne - I can see that there is far more to the West Wing than I originally thought!

Don't know whether you have picked this up yet mate but the troubles get worse at Elland Road, just heard they have sacked McDermott and McCormack says he's off and it looks like you're new owner is an Italian convicted fraudster. The fans need to show their strength now and boycott games to show they will not be messed about with.

I stopped at the U. S. Post Office yesterday and picked up my yearly supply of stamps that celebrate the Chinese New Year. This is one beautiful series and I enjoy putting those pretty stamps on envelopes for friends and family. Bills, of course, do not get the pretty stamps. They get generic type stamps.
Happy New Year!

>89 humouress: How lovely. Stealing it.

John - Seen it mate and I am a bit gutted. McDermott is an honourable man and the best fellow to lead the club forward. Our captain and demonstrably best player commits his future and within an hour his manager is axed and he is reported to have regretted his decision to commit. Apparently ex-Middlebrough player Gianluca Festa will be named manager and he has zero managerial experience. Our club would die, John, if we boycott; just have to hope that Cellino is not as bad as painted. To be fair the charges against him for fraud were, it seems, a pretty trumped up affair.

Benita - The Lunar New Year is a big deal over here to say the least so it is pleasing to see that stamps in the USA also will commemorate the event.

Linda - It is pretty isn't it?

Paul, hearing that there will be demonstrations at the game tomorrow and that the fans are up in arms with the way the club is being torn apart.

Yes, John, and I can understand it but at the end of the day money talks and if Cellino has put his money down he can do as he likes. We really are an unlucky bunch. Years of stagnation under wily Ken Bates and now this. Feel sorry for Brian McDermott as I honestly believe he was the best man for the job.

>94 michigantrumpet: Marianne: Josh is great, too - he has some facial expressions that are hilarious - but I'm Team Toby all the way. I share his political views nearly to a T and I've always been a softie for a curmudgeon (I even married one).

>95 PaulCranswick: Paul: If you've never watched it, you should. Honestly, it's one of the best TV shows ever produced in this country.

#84 Amber,
I really wanted President Matt Santos if we couldn't have President Bartlett.

77 > Sometime democracy stultifies leadership ..... dare I say especially the ware its practised in the U.S

80 > These have been in the shops for a few weeks already ..... resisting the temptation to buy too soon before Easter!

>103 AuntieClio: Stephanie: Yes! We're working our way through a re-watch right now, and tonight we watched the episode in which Santos wins the California primary - so exciting!

Oh right! Love Matt Santos!

Amber - hahaha we have our share of curmudgeons around here too don't we; not myself of course.
I have seen episodes of it and it does look pretty good but I don't watch much TV and the scheduling for West Wing on Satelitte here is baffling.

Stephanie - Now I am assuming you are talking in a political and not a biblical sense!

Alex - You are right of course and all democracies are imperfect but the American one for me is frustratingly so. Gore wins a straight vote for President with Dubya but doesn't get elected. Should be a straight popularity contest across the nation no need in these hi-tech days for that electoral college nonsense.
Sorry to say but the bi-cameral legislature also plainly doesn't work as it was intended to.

Amber - The political process is exciting even when it spawns dull characters so a fictionalised one is bound to be great if done properly.

Marianne - I remember Jimmy Smits in LA Law and a few other things and he has always had a great presence.

>79 PaulCranswick: Dear Paul, I wish more people here shared your views about the welfare of society and individuals in it. Well said, my friend.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Hey Paul, I hope you are having a great start to the weekend. :)

Thanks Anne. I honestly don't know why everybody doesn't think the same way; doesn't seem in the least bit controversial does it to take care of those unable to do so. To tolerate the views of others. To try and give back a little while you're busy taking.

Thanks Tam. Faux mexican meal last night. Corona beer, margheritas (strawberry flavoured for some reason) a delightful chicken chorizo appetiser followed by a T-Bone of epic proportions.
SWMBO sleeping like a light. But leisurely beginning to my Saturday morning.

14.

David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky

Date of Publication : 1929 (14/150)
USA State : N/A
TIOLI Chellenge : Set in France before 2000; January 2014
Category Challenge : Authors New to Me

Last book finished for January and probably in many ways, the best is saved for last.

Superb short novel by the lady whose reputation was reignited by Suite Francaise being discovered a few years ago long after her death at Auschwitz.

A great moral fable about family and the corrupting power of money. Golder is a capitalist extrordinaire who is ruthless in despatching all those who cross him. When he realises age and ill-health are catching up with him and that his wfie and daughter only want his money he decides to review the manner in which life is being pursued.

Some of the quotations from the book are worth mentioning given the eventual fate of the Jews in Europe decried by the Nazis in jealousy for their supposed financial leechdom:

"Dirty and poor, all right, but does a Jew need much? Poverty preserves the Jews like brine preserves the herrings." pp 121

As someone in business and who makes money for his family to spend, some of the story is as frighteningly true today as it was when written 95 years ago.

Very highly recommended.

9/10

Pages this book : 159
Pages in completed books in 2014 : 3,106

#107 Paul,
Yes, politically. Besides, the character was married and auntie don't play that. ;-)

Stephanie - I know very well that Auntie is a good girl. :D

END OF JANUARY POSTING LEAGUE UPDATE

I didn't think that 2013 would be topped but it was. The top ten threads 20% up on last year and the top 50 about 5% up overall.

Here are all the threads above 50 posts at end 31 January 2014 LT time.

1 Paul C 2222
2 Richard 1803
3 Amber 1235
4 Mamie 1128
5 Joe 1052
6 Mark 957
7 Julia 821
8 Diana 747
9 Ellen 698
10 Katie 614
11 Suz 490
12 Darryl 456
13 Kath 442
14 Megan 425
15 Rhian 406
16 Caro 388
17 Marianne 382
18 Linda (Wh) 374
19 Tina 374
20 Kerri 371
21 Roni 369
22 Morphy 361
23 Roberta 359
24 Abby 340
25 Liz 310
26 Nora 308
27 Donna 305
28 Jim 295
29 Terri T 275
30 Mary S 274
31 Bonnie 272
32 Ape 270
33 Jeff 269
34 Lucy 267
35 Stephanie 267
36 Lori T 265
37 Cee 260
38 Barbara 252
39 Micky 229
40 Peggy 225
41 Faith 222
42 Carrie 221
43 Amy 220
44 Kathy 220
45 Lynda 220
46 Pat 218
47 Ilana 215
48 Linda (Lay) 214
49 Joanne 212
50 John 212
51 Tam 210
52 Judy (DQ) 199
53 Paul S 197
54 Connie 192
55 Karen 190
56 Susan 187
57 Kriti 183
58 Qebo 179
59 Foggy 178
60 Anne AMQS 168
61 Madeline 166
62 Ursula 160
63 Lori K 158
64 Gail 153
65 Nancy 150
66 Erik 149
67 Beth 145
68 Laura 145
69 Chelle 140
70 Cushla 139
71 Heidi 137
72 Linda P 136
73 Zoe 131
74 Gerard 130
75 Reba 128
76 David 127
77 Nathalie 127
78 Marie 122
79 Leah 117
80 Charlotte 116
81 Swynn 116
82 SuziQ 113
83 Jenn 111
84 Mary B 109
85 Rachel 108
86 Tui 108
87 Cheli 102
88 Kerry 102
89 Melissa 102
90 Jean 97
91 Monica (JustJoey)97
92 Jennifer 96
93 Stasia 92
94 Evilmoose 91
95 Becky 90
96 Terri Toef 90
97 Laura Lyco 89
98 Rhonda 89
99 Genny 88
100 Fuzzi 85
101 Heather 85
102 Monica C4 85
103 Jessibud 82
104 Bekka 81
105 AndrewR 80
106 Carsten 78
107 Nina 76
108 Markon 75
109 Piyush 75
110 Judy (ff) 73
111 HannahG 72
112 AnneGreen 69
113 AnneDC 67
114 Luxx 65
115 Sara 62
116 Janet 60
117 Kim 59
118 Karenmarie 58
119 Kerry CDV 58
120 Linda 92007 56
121 Cait 55
122 Calm 55
123 Laurabrook 55
124 Deborah (Aruba) 54
125 Alex 51
126 FamHist 51
127 K8 51
128 Paige 51
129 Samantha 51

READING ROUND-UP FOR JANUARY 2014

Books Completed : 14

Pages Read : 3,106

Books by Genre:
Literary Fiction : 7 books - Favourite: David Golder
Poetry Collections: 5 books - Favourite: Touch Wood: Poems and a Story
Non-Fiction : 1 book - The Sleepwalkers : How Europe Went to War in 1914
Mystery/Thriller: 1 book - North From Rome

Books by Gender:
Male authors : 9
Female authors : 5

Books by nationality:
USA 5
UK 5
France 1
Ireland 1
Australia 1
Nigeria 1

Challenges
150 year challenge : 14 years added (14/150)
Stateside Challenge : 5 states done (5/52)
Nobel Challenges : None
TIOLI : To update
1001 Books (1st Ed) : 3 done
Category Challenges : See up top

Books Bought/Received : 75
Books Read : 14
TBR Increase/Decrease : 61 (increase)
Revised TBR physical : 2,751
Revised TBR overall : 6,624

FEBRUARY READING PLAN

Last month I targeted 14 books and I managed to make it with minutes to spare. This month despite it being a shorter one I expect to read more because of a likely appointment of a new driver, plenty of travel to Vietnam, Ghana and Brunei and less posting opportunities.

Plan 18:

1. Sleeper's Wake by Alistair Morgan (2009)
2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1930)
3. Magician : Apprentice by Raymond Feist (1982)
4. The Hawk in the Rain by Ted Hughes (1957)
5. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (1939)
6. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope (1865)
7. Life Studies by Robert Lowell (1959)
8. Adam Resurrected by Yoram Kaniuk (1969)
9. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy (1886)
10. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1906)
11. The Song of the Cold by Edith Sitwell (1945)
12. Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner (1898)
13. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola (1867)
14. Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg (1916)
15. Legend of a Suicide by David Vann (2008)
16. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (1962)
17. Gossip from the Forest by Thomas Keneally (1975)
18. If This is a Man by Primo Levi (1947)

One is a gift from Jean (Majkia) (#1)
Four poetry anthologies (#'s 4, 7, 11 & 14)
Two are on WW1 (#'s 16, 17)
18 different years in my 150 challenge
6 american writers but 5 states to add to the challenge
1 is for Mark's American Author challenge (#2)
1 is for the Fantasy February (#3)
1 is a re-read (#12)
1 is to finish after starting last year (#6)
2 are Holocaust related (#'s 8, 18)
4 are 1001 books; 1st Ed : (#'s 9, 10, 13, 18)

Glad to see that dome of Irene Nemirovsky's work is so good. I read Suite Francaise last year and was hugely impressed.

Rhian, it was beautifully written, incisive and insightful. Made me think of my own place in the world reading its spare but haunting prose.

#117 I've read three of those (Magician, Death of Ivan Ilych and The Jungle). Magician is Feist at his best. The Jungle is rather traumatising and painful. Sticks with you though.

Also, I didn't realise you were a 1,001-er (or did I know and have forgotten?)! Yay :)

>112 PaulCranswick: you got me with a BB- I have to say it doesn't happen too often from your thread. I think more because of your reviews being on the short side as much as anything else. I have it on my library WL, and it looks like it isn't that popular as there are 9 copies, and none are out! (*shock*)

Your February Plan is so....planned! Well done, and good luck. My reading is very higgeldy piggeldy at present, I near the end of something that I randomly started, see a book spine and grab it as if it there are others who might snatch it off me, and start that. If I haven't already started something when I finish a book though, I feel a bit anxious about not having anything lined up- this is in spite of having over a hundred on my shelves yet to be read.

^I'll be a 1001-er when my lovely other comes good with his promise to get me the 1001 bible :)

Bekka - I bought the first edition of the book and have tracked my reading against it. The problem with having three editions released is that it becomes "1,239 books you should read before you die" so it gets harder and more ridiculous each edition. So I take no notice of the later editions and follow the orig.
I'm not really a 1,001er but am an inactive group member and have on the shelves 457 of the original books.

Megan - Higgeldy piggeldy is a nice way to read but I really do have to get a move on and reduce some of my stockpile. I guess I will read more than I buy this month for the first time in a blue moon.

Magician : Apprentice now there is a book I haven't heard of in many years, wonder if it's as good as i remember ... seems another age when i read that, pre -internet :)

Alex - I have a very close friend and a particularly successful businessman, Dato' Jespal Deol (Dato' is the local equivalent of "Sir") who reads as much as I do and has a collection which must be close to mine in size but is more Sci-Fi, Thrillers and fantasy driven than mine is. He strongly recommended the Feist books to me.
I remember when he moved into the house he had had built with its own library I was commissioned to sort out his books and shelf them all up. Loved doing it over an entire weekend fuelled by port wine and good conversation.

Paul, two days not on LT and I'm miles away to keep up with your thread. Congrats on the new one. As I can see you'll read Tolstoy. I love all his books. Happy reading.
I wish you a lovely weekend

just trying to keep track of you

What a lucky fellow to get two zippy graphics:

Barbara - Settling down now the threads a bit. I'll be surprised if February doesn't find fatigue starting to tell on some of us. I have read Anna Karenina years ago and want to read that other monster of his when I get the time. His shorter fiction is something new to me.

Kath - I know that Janaury has been a cold, busy and fretful month for you my dear. Let February usher in warmer times.

#124 -- A weekend helping a friend sort and shelve a large and interesting book collection sounds just about perfect to me . . . but then, I am a librarian, after all!

All caught up here, Paul. Impressive reading you accomplished in January - I only finished ten books, so I am hoping to do better in February even though it is a shorter month. No football games to watch should help! Hoping that your weekend is full of fabulous!

>> 99. I vaguely remember Gianluca Festa playing for Middlesborough against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi final about 11 or 12 years ago. He scored an own goal and I think we won 1-0. (An appropriate scoreline for Arsenal).

I certainly won't do better in February: two weeks of Olympic Games, can't wait to see "everything"!

Have a lovely weekend, Paul!

Just wanted to stop by and wish you a happy February!

> 127 - Hi Paul, just dropping by to say hello. Nothing much happening here . School is very busy, so not much time to read. Keeping up with threads is sometimes very hard to do. I find my self skipping things, so there is a bit fatigue for you al ready!.

Have a nice weekend.

Your latest book David Golder sounds quite interesting. I'll heave it onto the wishlist. I'm happy for you that you will soon have a new driver to help ease your stress. At least, I hope that's the way it works out. :-)

Superb list of planned reads for February, Paul. The Jungle was one of my most memorable assigned books to read in high school, so I look forward to your comments about it, and nearly all of the other ones.

Paul, I'll be reading Suite Française this year, which it the book Rhian picked for me, but I've also had David Golder on the wishlist for some time and happy to see you liked it so much. Will add you as a recommender.

I can't believe I made the top 50! Wonders never cease!

What challenge are you reading Rogue Male for? I got it toward the end of the year (from, who else? FS of course!) and may join you if you find a spot to stick it into on TIOLI.

124 > Now that must have been a fun driven weekend, your friend is right Feist is a master in that field, I read the first 3 or 4 books, then my reading turned & was dominated by non-fiction for a number of years.

Have been tempted to look those books up again .... maybe

Hello,my dear, just dropping in quickly to say hello. I will have to come back to the library or get on my tablet to read all the threads I am so far behind on but just wanted you to know I have been rather busy and this week will be packing like a crazy person. I have been keeping up with the American Author challenge and have almost finished My Antonia. I think you read that too. Isn't it lovely writing? I am enjoying it on a playaway so I am having it read to me and it is very enjoyable to work with that story unwinding in my head. I miss being on here something awful! I am out of computer time on my phone which I ue for a hotspot for my tablet so I have to come to the library to use their computers and just have not had the time. Don't worry! I will catch up with everybody, though. If I get here at the right time, I can stay on the 'puter for hours. See you again soon!

PS-Hope you are enjoying Stephen Dunn. OMG! I just found the poem you wrote with moi in it! So lovely! And very pertinent to his poetry, also. With the sentiment of how it traveled half way across the world...really touched my heart...lovely Paul. Very much needed right now, I think you know...

Hi Paul, you did well reading-wise in January especially as keeping current in your own thread as well as others probably counts as a a couple of books or so!

I too am hoping to get even more books read in February than in January but with Olympics etc. this may be a forlorn hope.

I myownself found David Golder squicky.

The league tables for January are jaw-dropping. Just astonishing.

Foggy - Being an honorary librarian for the weekend was great fun but I must admit that I am probably a bit too pedantic for the role long term. Weeks later I was back at Jespal's place and knew instinctively that he had had books out and put them back in the wrong places. He was astonished that I was able to go straight to the places where he had put books back wrongly. I wouldn't want that bane in my everyday working life!

Mamie - My page count was pretty low though but not surprisingly so considering there were 5 poetry collections which are slow reads for me as I like to at least pretend that I am understanding what's written.

Rosalind - Confused of Kuala Lumpur. The club put out a message over the tannoy (do they still call them that, I wonder) that Brian McDermott was still manager yesterday in the second half and his assistant, Nigel Gibbs, took the team yesterday. The players visibly bristling thrashed Huddersfield 5-1 with talisman and captain, Ross McCormack, scoring a hattrick. It is surely only a matter of time but the club likes its manager erstwhile or incumbent remains to be seen.

Diana - Not my bag really the Winter Olympics. Like to watch it but don't need to as compared to Les Tours, Wimbledon, World Cup, Summer Games etc etc. I suppose the Brits being absolutely useless doesn't help.

Marie - I am hoping for a good month, my dear, thank you. We have a couple of new projects starting and a couple that are at fairly critical junctures. There are distinct possibilities of business trips to Ghana, Vietnam and Brunei during the month too. I always read tons in airports and on planes and in hotels so I reckon on a bumper reading month.

Connie - Skipping and school ~ an inevitable combination I think. My best friend in the UK is a teacher at a large comprehensive school in the North West of England (in Northwich to be precise) and he bemoans the schedule and the marking whilst I point out the huge holidays with similar envy.

Julia - I have remained very close to Azmi (three drivers ago) who had stayed with me for five years. He left to work for a Celebrity Chef, the locally renowned, rotund and comically camp Chef Ismail. He has a soft spot for yours truly and will normally pick us out the choicest dishes whilst reminding me of how handsome he thinks I am. Great ego boost I suppose but I would sooner it was some of the starlets that adorn his Bangsar eatery that were formulating his good opinion of me. I digress. Azmi is suffering from stomach cancer which hopefully he is winning the fight against and has recommended a friend of his to his old boss. We'll see.
This is Chef Ismail by the way:


Darryl - Thanks. The Jungle is one that I have been meaning to read for ages. I have it in a Hardback special I bought from Borders.

Ilana - Actually I haven't studied the TIOLI in too much detail yet this month but I do know that it fits with Madeline's challenge. My weighted member with the most shared books is a British friend of mine Stevo Henderson and Rogue Male is in his collection. So TIOLI #1 it would probably be.

Alex - He is normally quite reliable too with his recommendations. It was he four years ago told me I had to read Jack Reacher and he gave me the first four books to start with (which I read in less than a week).

Mary Beth - You and your moving travails have occupied quite a bit of my thinking time these last weeks my dear. LT/ the 75ers is a strange place with the wonderful capacity of making us care dearly for those we come into, often only, virtual contact with. So when Cee is fighting illness, Linda or Richard are in pain, Suz or Ilana are suffering their headaches, Pat is building her home, Karen is waiting to take up occupation again, Kath's dog needs spectacles, Darryl is knackered from a week of keeping kids alive, Stasia is knackered for showing the education system is for the over thirties too, Katie is getting totalled, Caro is having her travel arrangements scuppered, Gail or John and his lovely wife suffer the loss of loved ones, Micky is awaiting job news, Stephanie is railing against few job opportunities and so on and so on, I care deeply enough to have all in my thoughts at odd and variable times. Then again I don't sleep much. xx

Judy - Canada normally does well in the Winter Olympics as I recall. Reading and listening should be fine. Skiing on the radio is bound to be successful!

RD - I had to look up "squicky" in the urban dictionary to see whether you liked it or not dear fellow. I guess if it made you feel nauseous that's not so good, huh?

Paul,
A friend got his limited edition postcard just this last week and told me he didn't understand why my photography wasn't just flying off the shelves. As we talked more, I told him my unemployment was about to run out and he said, "Well, that gives the universe time to find a way to take care of you."

That such people as you think of me and worry, is such grace. Thank you.

ETA: I will be interested in knowing what you think of Legend of a Suicide, it looks like it might be good.

I have a different opinion of Feist but it has many years since I've read his stuff, although I really enjoyed Faerie Tale and the Empire Trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts.

Also, I downloaded the 1001 spreadsheet and have been keeping track that way. I am in no way interested in adding it as a guide to what I should buy but if I happen to buy something or have it already, I make a note.

Happg reading for February !

Stephanie - I am a fan of jobs over welfare as are all people who, like you, want to work. There simply aren't the jobs out there. Governments sit on their figurative hands whilst people struggle to make ends meet and bleat about a rampant welfare sytem. Where are the programmes on infrastructure and wealth creation to enable people to keep their pride and get into work? Until such time that Government does enough to make finding a job a genuine exercise of relocation they can bluster until then they need to keep that safety net there. It is no good talking about the trickle down benefits of free trade when workers in the areas of production are laid-off because their goods can be made cheaper by a 7 year old in Taiwan. Europe is the same with its declining manufacturing and relying on imports from India and China which is bankrupting them all by the back door.

Bryony - Thank you my dear. I noticed that you were inadvertently not listed in my thread league so I'll mention specifically your 62 posts here and will make sure you're not missed again. xx

I tend to slip through nets. I hide in dark corners here on librarything only really pop out if someone metions Harry Potter, Doctor Who or if someone pokes me with a stick! :)

145 > Dam I exhausted just reading that list ......

146 > where is this "1001 spreadsheet" curious minds would like to know ...

My workplace has announced a org restructure in my business unit - phew! the universe has looked after me once again my role is not threatened .... lost count how many bullets I have dodged in recent years.

The 1,001 books spreadsheet is available here for download. It costs 3.49euros

Bryony - No not at all, it is just me being careless!

Alex - The list could have been a heck of a lot longer dear fellow but I think the point was probably made after the first one or two examples!
Pleased to see you dodging bullets. The power of 75er goodwill also cannot be discounted.

Stephanie - Why pay for a spreadsheet when someone can make one for yer. Kerri and Morphy are great spreadsheeters (if you know what I mean) and I am sure they could be prevailed upon........

I don't think I'd pay that for a spreadsheet either. They aren't that difficult to make, and you could customize your own to indicate which are free downloads, which are in the library (with call numbers), etc.

Hi Paul.
I was disappointed that Fools of Fortune was one of the Trevor books not on Powell's shelf. And I balked at buying The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War when I saw the price tag. Oh well, I still found 15 books to bring home with me. And the company was delightful. We had a great time.

Your upcoming U.S. Tour was mentioned with happy anticipation.

Paul, The Jungle is on my TBR pile. Who knows If I'll get to read it this year.

Paul, Mr SandDune is shocked that I can provide him with info about Leeds Utd before he hears about it from any other source. I think he feels that this upsets the balance of the universe somehow!

#156 football is the be all and end all in our house. Two phrases that relate to our house are:

1. You don't have to like Football here but it helps!
2.Football is not just a sport it is a Religion. Just ask my Mum!

Roy Hodgson once said when he was Swiss national team coach:

Football is the highest form of culture.

#158 I am inclined to agree with that!

Lori - I think the different editions of the book are beginning to be unhelpful. It is sort of "Oh sorry! I forgot about this one"
I don't agree with many of the first selections - far too many Auster, Beckett and Wyndham-Lewis but that is the point isn't it as a spark of debate and for interest. How such a list doesn't include I, Claudius or Cider With Rosie is utterly beyond me but still.
I could have lived with it had they produced one up to say the year 2000 and then done one for each decade.

Ellen - I have seen and savoured your 15 book haul at Powells. My ears have been burning actually so I figured there may have been some concerns raised about depletion of book stocks in the USA due to a summer rush!

Barbara; it is one that as a socialist I probably should have read by now.

Rhian - hahaha tell A that he can rest assured ~ it isn't about sport anymore; it is a complete soap opera.

I see that you are a resident of that august footballing town of Gillingham, Bryony. Now if you are a football fan I take it that the Gills are not your lot. Which is your team?

Barbara - It was of course the late Bill Shankley who held the cards when it came to football philosophising. I paraphrase - Football is not a matter of life and death. It is far more important than that.

Bryony - I don't want to say anything about Stodgy Hodgy prior to the world cup as I am keen not to jinx him.

This quote is wonderful, too. :-D

I support my fathers team, much to my Mums disgust! If I say South London you could guess. I live within 10 minuets of Gillinghams ground. Mum has a seasion ticket but is also a red devil. Mum takes football way more seriusly then my Dad, mind you saying that he is not that far behind.

Hi there, Paul! I hope you have a perfect sunday!

>152 PaulCranswick:: I'm pretty sure that Morphy already has the list in spreadsheet form...

Hello, Paul! I hope your weekend was a good one!

Barbara - Shankley was the most quotable of soccer managers.

Bryony - Now in my day Tottenham and Arsenal were North London; Fulham, QPR and Chelsea West London; West Ham and Millwall East London and Charlton & Crystal Palace South London. Chelsea and West Ham are technically south of the river, right? I know a lot of people from Essex follow West Ham.

Connie - Not a bad one at all. Belle and I had some father daughter time with a train ride into the mall and then lunch and the cinema. We saw I, Frankenstein.

Amber - good morning to you and good evening for me; c'est la vie.

I have a spreadsheet of the 1001 Books that includes a few of the updated versions but I think it's missing the last update. What year did the latest version of the book come out? It has all the added books but I didn't remove the deleted books. It currently has 1,294 books listed. Just send me a PM with your email and I'll send it to you.

Good to hear, Paul. Did you like the movie?

2012 was the latest edition - it's now 1,305 :)

My team are blue.

Paul I take it you are recovering from your weekend and fingers crossed you get a new and very reliable long-term driver so we see your books read numbers soaring through the roof. That plus you get an extra hand to help haul the books from your Friday excursions.

Woohoo for my thread making it on the 50+ posts list!! Thanks for contributing some of those posts, Paul :)

On your February list, I do hope you read Levi's If This Is a Man, which gets my vote for most heart-wrenching Holocaust memoir (though Elie Wiesel's Night is a close second). I am currently reading As I Lay Dying, my first Faulkner, and loving it.

Happy Sunday!

It migth be a few hours away, Paul, but Good morning. Have a wonderful week!

Just read that Philip Seymour Hoffman has been found dead in Greenwich apartment, what a sad loss such a good actor.

>175 johnsimpson: What awful news. Such a great character actor. He wasn't that old was he?

No, he was only 46. So sad. RIP PSH.

"found dead with a syringe in his arm" according to law enforcement officials. Sad beyond measure.

Of course with overdoses there's never any knowing whether it was willfully done or not, unless there's a note of course. Tragic either way. He never impressed me as a particularly happy person, but what an actor!

*waves at Paul* I have a new thread that needs some Qu'est-ce que c'est, Paulness? :P Yes, so sad about PSH, I cried. So, so sad.

I knew that Morphy would have that spreadsheet!

Yes Connie, Belle and I enjoyed the movie. Demons vs Gargoyles with Frankie in the middle. Great fun. I delayed mentioning also that Belle claimed to be out of books, clearly a chip off the old block. So I was dragged kicking and screaming to the Bookstore where I bought waiting for her to add to her own collection:

76. Bismarck : The Man and the Statesman by AJP Taylor (1955) 274 pp
AJP Taylor was a wonderfully witty historian and Bismarck's impact on Europe was profound
77. A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry (1998) 216 pp
So called "Sabbath Poems" collected from 1979-1997
78. The Good War by Studs Terkel (1984) 589 pp
An oral history of WW2 which wond Terkel the Pulitzer Prize
79. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (2013) 314 pp
Costa Book Awards winner quickly makes the Stores here
80. The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton (1911) 132 pp
Billed as the last of the epic poems from Father Brown creator
81. The House With a Sunken Courtyard by Kim Won Il (1988) 229 pp
Obviously overwhelmingly popular on LT with no touchstone for book or Korean author

Books in 2014 - 81
Total Pages Added in 2014 : 27,426
Revised Physical TBR : 2,757

Bekka - Just more goes to proving my point that the premise is now ridiculous and that the First Edition is the only one I'll bother with.

Bryony - Ah I see! Then you are far "Mour" lucky than I am. Owned by an Oligarch and managed by a self-aggrandising genius.

Roberta - I will step up the driver search this coming month. Azmi's guy will come and see me this week, so fingers crossed. I wish I could get Azmi back!

Cait - One of my favourite novels ever is If Not Now, When? and I love Levi's writing. I grew up in a Europe still recovering from the wounds inflicted by the previous but one generation. In Leeds which is the nearest very big city to me, there is a substantial Jewish community and I hold many of that faith as dear, dear friends. I am logically and emotionally disposed towards their historic travails and have read widely on the subject of the holocaust. Could it ever happen again? Well I believe that there have been significant acts of genocides post WWII in Bosnia, in Cambodia, in Burundi/Rwanda and against the Kurds etc etc. but nothing, on the scale or callously cold calculation of the Holocaust.
You'll also feature in the Book Reading League which I hope to get up to date soon.

Connie it is now 8.30 of a Monday morning and I have another public holiday (Federal Day for Kuala Lumpur) and my Erni-delivered arabica. Life is good.

John - I saw that this morning. Don't know the details yet but he was a year my junior.

Marianne - Loved him in Capote. I see he died with a needle in his arm. What a waste.

Ilana - I think my favourite of his was probably Owning Mahowny - an addiction of another kind. Great character actor and apparently wonderful in the theatre.

Linda - You made my comment before I went and checked for myself. Sad.

Ilana - True, it could have been an overdose accidental, it could have been a cry for help or it could have been a mark of utter despair. Leaves behind three children.

Tam - I will be sweeping through the remaining threads I have not made it to yet this long weekend. I have done the "e"s on the thread book so I need to get cracking!

Another nice Paul-haul there. I love Studs Terkel's oral histories.

I almost put it down again actually Julia because Belle was giving me one of her stern looks. I had another three in the basket and she made me trim by three so it barely survived. Need to go back on my own!

Paul> Only 81 books to date? I thought you'd be up to 100 by now. Wendell Berry is quite popular in this area because of his connection to Kentucky just to the north of us. Seeing the G. K. Chesterton in that last haul reminds me that I want to read at least one Father Brown book this year.

Told you I was taking it easy this year, hahaha, and it was only a half-month since I imposed no additions for the first 2 weeks.

Love the Father Brown books.

Taking it easy ..... Hmm yeah right !

Alex - :)

West Wing is a great series! Feist is okay--the first trilogy, of which you have the first book, is probably his best, although I also like his collaboration with Janny Wurts on the Empire trilogy the best. Hope you are having a great holiday.

Hi, Paul ~ So nice of you to visit my thread earlier! Thank you so much for your kind words. Hope you had a lovely weekend too.

No BBs in the last batch, which is a relief. There are already so many books on my WL that I will have to live to be 100 just to read all the books I currently want to read.

Very profound poem to have been written by a 16-year old. Just goes to show that the U.S. is not alone in its warmonger leaders (I'm thinking of Saint Ronnie and the Shrubs, in particular.)

Have a great holiday!

January Book Reading League

First the usual disclaimers. Gone through everyones threads over the last couple of days and I guess one or two are no fully updated. Different threads have different styles of recording so I have done my best to follow up to end of January. Some of you have already logged February books but I haven't included these if it is clear that they are Feb books. I have not included the picture books where you have separated them specifically and have included or not included books at your whims and fancy - i.e. if you decide an omnibus counts as 1 book or 3 for the number of volumes in the omnibus, I have gone with your decision not my own - if you have included magazines as a book, it is up to you and I have followed you.
Sure to be mistakes for which I apologise in advance.

Qualifying posts - 50.

1 Emilie 50
2 Suz 36
3 Jennifer 25
4 Erik 20
5 Caro 19
6 David 16
Ilana 16
Kerry 16
Lori T 16
Mary S 16
Paul S 16
Terri Toef 16
13 Foggy 15
Heather 15
Judy (DQ) 15
Kriti 15
Marie 15
Roni 15
Susan 15
20 Faith 14
Morphy 14
Paul C 14
Roberta 14
24 Genny 13
Joe 13
Julia 13
JustJoey 13
Kerry CDV 13
Lucy 13
Rhian 13
31 Abby 12
Diana 12
Evilmoose 12
Fuzzi 12
Kate (K8) 12
Stephanie 12
Ursula 12
38 Carrie 11
Gerard 11
Jeff 11
Kath 11
Linda (Wh) 11
Liz 11
Mark 11
Markon 11
46 Amy 10
AndrewR 10
AnneDC 10
Jean 10
Jim 10
Mamie 10
Melissa 10
Nathalie 10
Terri T 10
Tui 10
56 Beth 9
Calm 9
Donna 9
Ellen 9
FamHist 9
Linda (Lay) 9
Megan 9
Rhonda 9
Swynn 9
65 Cee 8
Heidi 8
Karenmarie 8
Kathy 8
Luxx 8
Lynda 8
Monica C4 8
SuziQ 8
Tam 8
74 Alex 7
Amber 7
Anne AMQS 7
AnneGreen 7
Aruba 7
Bryony 7
Charlotte 7
Janet 7
Judy (ff) 7
Katie 7
Kerri 7
Peggy 7
Qebo 7
Richard 7
88 Barbara 6
Becky 6
Bekka 6
Bonnie 6
Cait 6
Carsten 6
Cheli 6
Kim 6
Laura Lyco 6
Linda P 6
Lori K 6
Madeline 6
Marianne 6
Mary B 6
Nicole 6
Paige 6
Piyush 6
Reba 6
Sandy SMc 6
Stasia 6
Tina 6
Zoe 6
110 Ape 5
Darryl 5
Gail 5
Jenn 5
Jessibud 5
John 5
Laura 5
Micky 5
Nancy 5
Nora 5
120 Connie 4
Cushla 4
HannahG 4
Joanne 4
Laurabrook 4
Linda 92007 4
Nina 4
Rachel 4
Samantha 4
129 Chelle 3
130 Karen 2
Leah 2
Pat 2
133 Prue 1
Sara 1

Stopping by to congratulate you on thread #9, Paul. I got way-layed by RD and his picture of a Cadbury's Creme Egg - overly sweet for my tastes but sometimes that level of sugar intake is required. Those are usually an Easter themed chocolate but I guess since we are in February, Easter candy should be hitting the shelves soon, most likely the day after February 14. ;-)

Oooohhh.... I see a very nice rating for Irene Nemirovsky's David Golder. looks like I am adding more Nemirovsky's books to my TBR bookcase sometime soon.

I have nothing to add except happy wishes for a wonderful week, Paul.

Thanks, Roni - I can go back to enjoying Magician: Apprentice now that the stats are up to date.

Mary - Saint Ronnie and the Shrubs - great one!
I knew what I thought in those days even though some of the ideas came out half-formed.

Ah, THERE's the book stats. Thank you, Paul!

Thank you, Lori. My sweet tooth was really appreciative of RDs contribution. David Golder was a very good short novel, but a sobering one.

It is funny, Roni, because you are always in my mind when I am preparing those and you are almost always top 20. xx

#193 Paul,
not to be pedantic or anything but my count for January is 12.

Good morning Paul.

Sun rise in the Alps

Stephanie - Yours was one of the earliest I logged down and I thought that you may have updated in-between, but it doesn't seem to have been the case - sheer pilot error. Sorry my dear and I will amend post haste.

ETA - Changed already. xx

Paul - Thank you and vey nice it looks too.

I look forward to perusing your stats every month, as many others do - many thanks again for putting the work into keeping track of us all.

Hoping your work week is off to a good start!

Thank you for doing all the hard work with the stats, Paul. It's always fun to see the range of reading speeds across the group.

I have actually asked that Laura show me how to make a spreadsheet. I would love to have one showing the books that I have read the last several years... no time to get there though. Why do I want this? I have no idea, but I do.. I blame you Paul Cranswick :)

Hope your monday is going well and that good things happen for us .. each and every one!

Thank you and magnanimous too Amber. If I included yours and Charlie's picture books you'd be way, way in front in the books read stakes!
No work today thankfully but tomorrow is shaping up to be a very busy day.

Julia - You're welcome my dear. It isn't a great guide in truth as some books are chunksters and some obviously more difficult to wade through than others but it is only for fun.

Kath, believe it or not I have actually started the task of trying to list down all the books read by the group members each year to try to determine which were the books of the year. Found it too tough even for me to keep up. I am planning to get started on this years to see if I can keep up if I start early enough.

Paul.. that sounds scary to me. :P

Kath, Yep. Just to give you an idea. I recorded all those with more than 50 posts sinc January 1. There were 134 threads. From these 1,260 books were read. That is an average per thread of 9.403 books per person. To log one thread's reading may take me 5 minutes that is 670 minutes or 11.17 hours solid work. I am interested but it is a slog.

Belated but heartfelt happy February wishes, Paul! You never cease to amaze me! How you find the time to keep our stats whilst holding an important position in your flourishing company, read and purchase books, tend to your lovely family etc, etc, etc. just proves your awesomeness.
Inhale all the relaxation you can today as you ready yourself for a busy day tomorrow.

I'm one of those who hasn't updated my reading yet. I expect to get to it sometime today but I read 8 books in January.

Joining in on the Feist/Wurtz discussion - I liked the first two series he wrote but they are rather D&Dish to me and it got boring pretty quickly so I stopped reading his work. The collaboration between them was a lot better but Janny's books are really good. She is a LTer as well. Her reading journal is in the Green Dragon and she comes across as a really lovely person and she sent me a great PM when I read her last book.

#208 Wow! You are crackers! Lovely and dedicated but crackers.

I was born in the year of the horse, a very very fine year!!!

Lynda - You'll have this pasty face all a-red the way you're going on. The fact that the companies are mine probably allows me the time to keep up with stats!

Calm - I didn't think it could have been so few for you. I will update accordingly. xx
Enjoying Pug's adventures so far but for the fact that I envisage his face as being pug-like.

Bekka - I can agree with the crackers bit. Reminds me that I am a bit hungry. Tandoori chicken and naan bread tonight for yours truly.

Lucy - You and me both my dear. I don't know whether that is good news for you or not!

Paul... you have a very busy mind.. maybe mine is broken.. I think things like
Oh, look! a three kitties in a pile on the sofa awww"

or

Do I need milk or can it wait another day

or

fascinating stuff like that... :P

Thank you for the stats, Paul. 11.17 hours of work, that's crazy, don't you think? Noone will blame you if you put less work in it, dear. xx

#214 SnarF! Ditto... though less kitteny.

Hi Paul- Checking in from the homefront. Yep, back in the deep freeze. Hope I can get back into the groove of catching up on the threads or making an attempt anyway.
Hope you had a good weekend.

Tandoori Chicken?! My absolute favorite dish!

I'll be right over...

Hi Paul. 81 books just this year! WOW. Okay, I think that was to be expected since you told us about your bookbuying habits. But it surprises me anyway.

And I think there is someting wrong with the stats in my case. I just finished 4 books this year and currently reading 3 more.

My thoughts often turn to coffee Kath, I will admit. Coffee is the fuel my life is run on.

Diana - The 11 hours would be to produce a spreadsheet of what books we have all been reading.

Bekka - Don't you have to think mostly about nits at the moment my dear. They're not having any of my coffee anyway.

Oooo, I see. *relieved sigh*

Just settling down with a cup too. And enjoying a breeze through the threads. Al in all, a nice start to the day!

Mark - I followed your adventures as the solitary male amongst so many lovely ladies this weekend with a tinge of envy but if I could have elected one chap in my stead, it would have probably been you mate.

Amber - It was delicious although I still have orangey-red fingers from pulling the meat off the bones. I am told Stephen Fry and David Tennant also like their tandooris.

Connie - I went back to check how I could have got your stats wrong and now I can see the asterisks against books 5 & 6. You got a head start for Feb!
This is what I saw:

01. Lucretia Grindle - Villa Triste - 470 pages - 3 points for ROOT -
02. Ruth Newman - Schaduwkant - 302 pages -
03. Raymond E. Feist - Reis door de nacht - 349 pages - 5 points for ROOT -
04. Ransom Riggs - De bijzondere kinderen van mevrouw Peregrine - 378 pages - 3 points for ROOT -
05. Ruth Newman - Oogcontact - 304 pages - *
06. Tad Williams - De weg naar de hemel - 423 pages - *

* Currently reading

But in my haste I didn't notice the last part. Ooops

Diana - I think it quite likely that I will try and do it soon.

Jim - My day is nearly done and work beckons tomorrow. Enjoyed my break but it doesn't seem anywhere near long enough.

Haha, That's alright Paul. Mistakes are easy to make.

and I made a mistake as well - I actually read 9 books in January. I was going off the TIOLI wiki and forgot to add a book there. All sorted out now and I have updated my thread correctly.

Connie / Calm - I have edited the "scores" accordingly for both of you. xxx

Thanks Paul - I'll try to keep up with my own thread better this month:)

Hello Paul. I saw that I was in the reading league. Yippee! I am actually with you though, I haven't logged in a few books that I finished. I hope I get more books read in February. Last year February was my biggest reading month. *smooch*

Nice stats, Paul. It is nice to see these available. By the way, when do you sleep?? 0_o

*waves* Just holding onto my spot here so I don't lose you when you launch ANOTHER thread any minute.

Yes, that could be the case any time now!

Calm - Yikes I feel like the thread-police. If you update then it is a sign that your thread is busy again which would make me proper chuffed as they say where John and I come from.

Abby - I thought that you might have finished some more but I can only go on what's on the threads my dear.

Tam - I don't get that much sleep but I do feel a short one coming on.

Nah, Linda - Not for a few hours yet at least. I am feeling a bit drowsy; Faulkner only partly to blame!

Connie - You can only win once a year by the way!

Okay Paul, but that was not the reason I'm following you. It's just that I like you to much to loose sight of you.

Firmly in the middle of both posting and reading lists ... I'm okay with that. :) Revel in the average!

Hi, Paul ~ Just wanted to say that I appreciate all the time and hard work you do to keep the group's stats updated. Hope you had a good start to the week!

#201 Paul
Thank you. I think it's sweet you care enough to keep track of all our nutty statistics.

Paul, I see you plan to read The Jungle this month...one of my favorite books. it really changed my perspective on the world when I read it as a teen. You can probably trace my liberal attitude right back to that book!

Thanks for all the time and effort spent on the posting league stats and the number of books read stats. I am quite disappointed in myself for my poor showing in January but hoping to get back in the groove in February.

Add me to the cheering throngs shouting Huzzah! for your list making abilities. You keep this all very fun. Thank you!

Philip Seymour Hoffman: I see in the media that anonymous (*read pinch of salt*) sources indicate the heroin found in PSH's home was labeled Ace of Spades and Ace of Hearts. According to my friends back from my ol' prosecutor days, These are markings for a type of heroin which has been particularly lethal and responsible for scores of deaths here on the East Coast.

Allegedly the authorities are going to rule this an accidental overdose. Lots of efforts right now to see if the dealers can be seen on surveillance cameras at local businesses and possibly stopped before they sell any more of the stuff. Ugh.

What a waste indeed!

Paul, many thanks for keeping us updated. It's great fun

It's always too bad when someone dies so needlessly as Hoffman has. I can't say that I was ever a fan - something about him always set my teeth on edge - but I am sorry for his family.

Love the posting stats, but why, oh why, was I born such a Grade A Procrastinator! I could be listed up amongst the big dogs if I were up to date with my books. Not the biggest dogs, but definitely the very respectable dogs. When will I ever learn?

I know it's got to be a goodly amount of work for you, Paul, keeping up with all our numbers, but I, for one, love it. I'm kind of competitive in a really lazy kind of way...

My sister and I went to the movies this last weekend and saw "Saving Mr. Banks." We loved it. It made me want to go get the Mary Poppins books off the shelf and read them. I have to confess that I never read them as a child.

Hello Paul - interesting that you added the Wendell Berry poetry. I have Jayber Crow in my TBR pile...

Trying to catch up with you dear sir! Thanks for the stats! I'll do better with trying to keep my list updated and keep my threads at a manageable length! ;)

Paul, I can never remember what the time difference is between Iowa and KL, so you are probably fast asleep, but I wanted you to know that I had a lovely present waiting for me when I got home from work today! I am so excited to read the Lorrie Moore book, A Gate at the Stairs. After reading the blurb, it's hard to believe I didn't already have it on my wishlist because it looks right up my street. Thank you again for your extraordinary generosity!

Happy Tusday Paul. I will also add my thanks for your list making. :)

Connie - I know full well my dear I was only pulling your leg. If I thought that the thought of a prize was the only thing that brought people here I would discontinue the practice. xx

Ursula - Well we've been revelling in your drawings and there is absolutely nothing average about them.

Mary - You are a sweetie. I am so pleased that your own thread has taken wings somewhat this year. xx

Stephanie - It was Morphy and her love of stats on the TIOLI that got me thinking about posting stats and books read stats plus my own fascination with lists. When I started the posting records I was about 12th busiest and I was comfortable enough there but my thread has taken on the flavour of all its visitors and I chameleon like adapt to suit and my posting numbers have been beyond my ken actually.

Heidi - It is quite noticeable how the turn of the century 1800/1900 saw an outpouring of what was basically socialist fiction in the USA. Jack London, Frank Norris and Upton Sinclair in particular were real radicals.
The reading prowess of some of the others in the group has gotten me reading more for sure so I don't appear such a laggard but Suzanne, Emilie, Luci, Susan, Morphy and others are out of my league in truth.

Marianne - With my specific legal background in construction, I find your reminiscences exceptionally interesting. Hoffman's passing is a loss and a waste. I saw someone in Kuala Lumpur last weekend shooting up with heroin outside a shopping mall and it chilled my bones as I got something of the vision of "dead-man-walking".

Barbara - Your GIFs are also loads of fun. xx

Charlotte - I enjoy the reading list more in truth mainly because I know I won't be so close to the top but it is nice to see how I have performed against some of the readers who consistently read near my speed. Because you don't summarise your reading I have to follow whatever entries you have made. I remember you saying that you were invariably behind with them and a summary would settle this one for you easily.

Benita - I didn't read them as a child either but I did read two or three to the kids when they were younger. They liked but didn't love them as I recall. I thought Mary Poppins came across as a pretty scary and intimidating creature in the books.

I have seen a few report on Wendell Berry, Prue and his ecological views equate to my own. The cover is lovely too.


Tina - I was joking about thread length, Tina - there's no hard and fast. RD goes to 300, Diana 200. I used to go to 250 then last year also 300 but now settle for somewhere in between.

Julia - I am never asleep at 8 in the morning, my dear, don't worry. I am soooo pleased it has finally landed as almost all my Book Depo books arrived before it.

Bryony - I guess you are a very happy camper today given that the Sky-Blues were vanquished last night.

Got to the Office and my last outstanding Book Depo was waiting for me. A Kessinger Legacy Reprint of:

82. The Winnowing Fan by Laurence Binyon (1914) 38 pp.
Early poems on the Great War by one of my favourite poets of the era.

Books in 2014 : 82

Pages added in 2014: 27,464
Revised Physical TBR : 2,758 books

Hello Paul--a quick stop in before this thread goes away. It is nice to see that you are still keeping track of our reading and posting stats although I can't imagine where you find the time.

Love those stats, Paul, and appreciate all you do to work them up for us. I wonder, if we had a ticker only thread for everyone interested in being included in the stats, which it was our responsibility to keep up (easy since when you update them in your own thread they also do in the ticker thread), like they do in the ROOTS group. would that make your (self-appointed but much valued) job easier? Basically, we copy our ticker from our own threads and place it in the ticker-only thread, and then you only have to skim that thread to gather your data. ???

I am a very happy camper. Still 3rd though.

Anne - I am also not sure where the time goes sometimes. XX

Roni - It would of course be nice to have an easier job of preparing the stats but the present arrangement is the perfect excuse to make sure I visit everyone's thread - literally everyone with a thread in the group. Often as I go and catch up, I'll be leaving posts along the way.

Bryony - I thought Mourinho was hilarious yesterday. He had the kit-manager give the team talk!

As Bekka mentioned, The Jungle is a traumatizing experience, but totally worth it!

Piyush - I have put off reading the book for a while and I think I am overdue for it.

I was going to get all on your butt because I read 14 not 12 books. But I went to look at my thread and two books are missing!!! I need to fix that.

Plus I need to fix being so low on the ranking! Totally unacceptable.

ETA: Nope, didn't miss two books, just misnumbered!

As you can imagine Morphy I did give your latest numbers a second look because they were half what I would have expected. After two years of exceeding 300 you deserve at least one month spinning the wheels. I'll amend your numbers of course. xx

ETA Edited the figures already to add your two misnumbered books.

Way, way, way upthread: Wonderful review of the Mary Oliver book. Looks like something right up my alley (or street, depending on your place of origin). WL added. Also like the review of David Golder. Both are on the huge WL. Obviously I'll need at least one more life to read everything I'd like to.

I loved As I Lay Dying, which I found hilarious in a pathetic and bitter kind of way. My choice for FF was Absalom, Absalom!. I finished it last month and am now reading about it, to help me understand it. A difficult, but not impossible, work.

Thanks for all the fine statistical work and your kindness and generosity around these parts, Dear Boy (I'm (barely) old enough to be your Mum).

Gail - My poetry reading this month is stirring my old stirrings towards scribbling and may result in something or other hitting the poetry mags one of these fine days. I have followed the serene Oliver with the violent nature of Hughes. A great contrast between the two. Prefer the Hughes but Oliver in the mood is also wonderful. Hahaha on Faulkner - sometimes I need to double take as I seem to miss bits and have to go back and see if I can untangle the words.

Don't you think we are quite an ageless group? From Abby in her teens, several in their 20s and 30s, myself well into my 40s and trying to dig in non-existent heels to stay put, group members in their 50s, 60s and 70s and it matters not a whit. Good manners, a shared interest in printed matter, a jot of understanding and care for our fellow members and glued together with a tear, a smile, a virtual hug or three and a common fellowship maketh this group.