Bookmarque’s Padded Cell 2017 - Group Therapy Session 3

Here we are in October. The year has flown by and now we're getting toward the end. To start this part, probably the last one for 2017, here's a wrap up for September -

12 books read
3 non-fiction, 9 fiction
4 by men, 8 by women
7 by new writers, the rest I've read before
The oldest was from 1964 and the newest from this year
The most popular was The Republic of Love with 682, the most obscure was The Weight of Lies with a mere 20 (based on LT data at the time I read them)
3 audios, 2 ebooks, 7 hard copy
4 borrowed from the library, 8 I bought (3 used, 5 new)

OMG enough with stats. I'm nuts.



The best was Evolution by Jean-Baptiste de Panafieu. Just extraordinary. If you're into evolutionary biology it is a real treasure.

The worst, I hate to have to say it, was Margaret Millar's The Fiend. I think its age pulled its punch. Back when it was written it was probably very shocking indeed, but these days it isn't and it took AGES of quotidian detail to get through to reach that shocking bit.

How did you like 1000 years of annoying the French?

>2 hfglen:
Hugh, I trust you are referring to a book and not a policy in practice.

ha! but it is a policy in practice. By the English that is.

Overall I liked it, but had to take it in bits since it was REALLY long. Very dry humor typical of the English which I totally love and I laughed a lot. Also learned a lot and got to laugh up my sleeve at the seemingly humorless French who will do anything and everything to make themselves look good.

So I haven't been shooting a lot for one reason and another, but since it was cloudy and windy the other day I went into the woods across the street to work on long exposure canopy shots. It's something I'm playing with, but needs more work/experimentation.

---

Have to get to my chores quickly because I want to dive back into my current book -10% Human - How Your Body's Microbes hold the Key to Health and Happiness. It is fascinating, eye-opening and well written (for the most part). It's one of those books that I couldn't help talking about the second my husband got home. I've been aware of and caring for my own personal microbiome, but am looking for more things I can do and also some insight into how I can help my dad. He has a serious auto immune condition and has been taking meds for that (prednisone) that have caused a lot of other problems. Not to mention long and involved courses of antibiotics due to an anti-virual resistant strain of staph. That combined with a recent article in Wired about the fact that we're entering a post-antibiotic world, I feel I need to understand more about microbes and how to make them work for me.

Phew. I think clam is responsible for this book bullet, but I'm a willing victim!

I’m fascinated by this topic too.

“anti-virual resistant strain of staph.” Did you mean this? Assuming this meant something else, did you meant an an antibiotic resistant strain of staph?

Yes. He had a persistent staph infection that settled in his clavicle/sternum joint and also his aorta. The first 6 week course of pik line (sp?) antibiotics failed and he had to have surgery to remove part of the bone in that joint. The infectious disease specialist said it was the only way to be sure the infection didn't linger since the antibiotics proved ineffective. Like removing a limb if it gets gangrenous to prevent spreading. The aorta wasn't affected enough to require surgery, but it has discernible organic growth/damage. It functions fine and he has a cardiologist keeping an eye on it. I think he's finishing up a round of oral antibiotics after the injectable ones had too many awful side effects.

The current line of thinking is that the infection vector was his perforated bowel which they found basically by accident when they stopped the massive prednisone dosage he was on for myesthemia gravis which is an auto immune disease that attacks the muscles, particularly of the face, neck and jaw. When the steroid stopped masking some inflammation they were able to detect the bowel perforation and save his life with emergency surgery. My line of thinking is that his colon became compromised by his diet and the staph entered his system through the intestinal lining.

It's all very convoluted and scary. He is home and recovering, but I fear his health will never be what it once was. It's possible he can have his bowel reconnected in a month or two and be rid of the colostomy bag he has to have right now.

>7 Bookmarque: Loads of sympathy; the more so as my daughter has a particularly debilitating form of myasthenia gravis, and is undergoing plasmophoresis (if you don't already, you don't want to know what this is. Trust me.). She's also picked up MRSA or something similar in the hospital, and this week's round is complicated by a flare-up of shingles. So I can feel for you.

Thanks Hugh. Right back at you about the MG. I had no idea of its existence until dad came down with it. It appears to be caused by environmental factors, not heredity or genetic expression which relieves me a bit since I take after my dad so much in a physical way. What I'm learning through 10% Human is how much of what we think is either normal function or dysfunction is down to microbes. It's complicated, yet simple enough that I want to send him into their decades old organic garden to eat a teaspoon of dirt. By my reading of another book that deals with microbes in soil and their effect on plants, I stopped really scrubbing my organic veggies and I don't even rinse them half the time. The soil itself probably holds microbes that will help me be more healthy and so...

>5 Bookmarque: - nice pictures!

I read 10% human a while ago, probably also thanks to clam's comments, and found it fascinating.

A couple of books you mention here have caught my interest, particularly Evolution and Annoying the French.

>7 Bookmarque: it’s certainly possible that the colon was the source, but staph is a more common organism to colonize the nose and upper respiratory tract rather than the colon which has a host of other ordinary microbial passengers. And resistant strains are usually but not always acquired from exposure to them in hospitals.

Agreed and it's only an idea and a moot one at this point. I just hope he's over it and can recover well enough to enjoy life. He and mom went up to their favorite beach and restaurant last weekend, so he's getting stronger.

>12 Bookmarque: Wonderful to hear!

>5 Bookmarque: Love the photos, and yes I will take responsibility for the book bullet. (My kids are so sick of hearing me rant on this particular topic.) I'm glad you got so much out of the read.

Thanks clam. I haven't written a review yet, but will do so soon. The book is still here waiting for my hubby to start on it which he might if he has to go to Chicago. I'm glad I've been taking care of my microbes in the last 5 years, but I still think I've done more harm than good with the sheer number of times I've been on antibiotics. Some of it was necessary (like when I had bronchitis and pneumonia), but some was just prophylactic (when I had bone grafts for my doomed dental implant) and I fear I've done more harm than good. Very eye opening even if I think the writer suffered from a touch of confirmation bias.

I started three big, rather involved books recently because I'm crazy.
Sleeping Beauties - a father son project with Owen and Stephen King and it shows
Bats A World of Science and Mystery - had this 2 years and am now just cracking it
The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins because who doesn't love a Victorian sensation novel in the fall?

Anyway...I was out in the woods on Sunday and I'll probably head out again shortly. It's too beautiful to stay inside even with my books!

>15 Bookmarque: Absolutely beautiful. I love your pictures.

>15 Bookmarque: Spectacular! You are ahead of us in the foliage department. It's still patchy here.

I'm sure I've done the same with the antibiotics. I always thought I was protecting myself by eating yogurt religiously while taking any antibiotics, but that was obviously not enough. I was taking a probiotic daily for several months this past Summer (After reading this book!) but they started having 'adverse effects.' I'll spare you the gory details. ;o)

>15 Bookmarque: Stunning! About the only fall color I have here is my Virginia Creeper, which is lovely, but struggling to survive.

Those little microbes are one of the reasons I'm getting into fermenting my own foods. That and it's lots of fun and tasty. I have the book, but haven't read it yet. I can't remember where I read that our microbes get used to what we are feeding them, and it is very difficult to change your microbe cultures, even if you change what you eat. It takes a long time, and lots of other healthy habits, and they know so little because microbes are usually studied for their harmful effects, not the beneficial ones. I look forward to reading it.

Thanks Ladies and Gent! The foliage itself doesn't last long. In NH the leaves lingered on the trees for about a week more than they do here, so I take advantage every time I can. Didn't get good tree pics today, but I did get some nice Ripley creek shots I think. It got cloudy so I changed my objective and had a good time. Found 1/2 of a deer pelvis. At least I think it is. Could be a coyote, too. Hard to tell. Then I accidentally set off my house alarm by opening a door to the garage before the house. There was a spray can on the floor where it shouldn't be and there was a chipmunk in there messing around. I opened the other door to see if it would go out when it went to that corner, but no, all I got was a call from my security company and a very loud siren. lol

>15 Bookmarque: Beautiful foliage!

Thanks so much! Have another -

I really need to write some book reviews. Yup, despite my lack of posting I have been reading. Maybe today or tomorrow I'll get to them. In the meantime, the cover module keeps giving me some lovely examples -



I've already chosen an Edward Gorey cover for my version of The Aeneid, but if I hadn't I'd pick this one.

And I've never seen such a glamorous and non-humorous cover for a Wodehouse novel -

Today is dreary, but I did go poke around in the yard with the camera and a couple of lenses I should use more often. Am going to be reading again for the afternoon, but I thought I'd share the sunrise from the other day. Of course we took the dock in the day before so I couldn't get out over the water. It was gorgeous anyway -



Oh and I put another Shelf by Shelf post up on the blog -



Shelf by Shelf - McDermid to Miller includes one of my FAVORITE authors, too.

https://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2017/10/shelf-by-shelf-mcdermid-to-miller.htm...

Wow! That is stunning. Worth being up early in the morning to see those colours.

>23 Bookmarque: Super pucture.

Thanks peeps. Sometimes Wisconsin is cooperative.

And OMG. Squee! I'm such a fangirl and I'm having a moment. Just above on my last Shelf by Shelf, I sing the praises of Patrick McGrath. Lo and behold looky what I found!

http://centipedepress.com/horror/writingmadness.html

A limited, signed edition of short stories, essays and other book introductions he's done. It looks AMAZING, but I will have to wait until spring for it to be released. OMG. It will be like a birthday present to myself. It's the least I can do for the big Five O!

I want it now!!! Now darn it. But at least I managed to snag one. Only 300. Now I can compare the signature in one of his other books that I think I ordered online so didn't see him sign it and have no idea if it's real or not. Fun.

Wait. no. I'm an idiot. The book published THIS year in spring. I'll get my copy in 10 days or so. Woo hoo!

Such a pretty sunrise.

>27 Bookmarque:
Now you will need another birthday present.

My big birthdays seem to be diminishing in splendor as they go up.

30 - bought myself a BMW (still own the garage queen)
40 - an Eames lounge chair (sat in it the other day)
50 - ? a book?! Eeek.

The wind is wicked right now so this view is long gone!

Well October is behind us and so here's my reading wrap up -

11 books read
9 fiction, 2 non-fiction
5 by women, 6 by men
5 new writers, 6 I’ve read before
4 audio, 4 ebooks and 3 physical
6 I bought, 2 were free and the rest borrowed
The oldest was from 1845 and the newest this year.
The most popular was The Magpie Murders and the most obscure was Creatures of the Deep

. . . . . . . . . .

The best novel was Chicot the Jester for it's sheer craziness and style. The worst was The Widow's House because it was disjointed, has stupid and irritating characters and was too repetitive. Took forever to get to what was a decent ending.

Strangely, I had a Widow's House and a Merchant's house and if I'd been able to stomach it, I'd have had a Paris Secret as well as a Dead one. Funny.

Just finished a review for a marvelous limited edition from a small press that collects a lot of short fiction from Patrick McGrath. It was tough because he's a genius and because short stories, essays and other things are so hard for me to review. If you're a fan, this is a gem of a book.



Review here

Good Heavens! The artwork had the thumbprint of Folio Society 60s--80s all over it. I was completely fooled.

The artist has done Folio books, Crime and Punishment and a Le Fanu collection, with a few others.

Ah. It must be one or more of the others I'm thinking of.

>33 Bookmarque: Wow, that is fantastic! I love the style.

It really is a lovely book and I'm so pleased at the serendipity that I discovered it. Here on LT, of course.

So fall has wound down into stick season. I went out shooting abandoned stuff today, but realized I didn't share my latest series here so without further ado -







It was a day I went out in the yard with two of my old Olympus lenses from my 35mm days - the 135mm f2.8 and the 35mm f2. Both lovely and my favorites from film days. I'm glad I get to still use them and enjoy their quirkiness.

It's been so long since I went to the library that I can't remember how some of these got onto my list, but here's what went home with me today -



Am done with my Dumas trilogy so will be hitting one of these in a bit.

Here's one of the abandoned houses I shot the other day. It was one of four defunct farms that I stopped for. Yay factory farming.



The light didn't stay like that and the other images are far more bleak, but I like this one for its juxtaposition of invitingness and decrepitude.

Love the abandoned house photo. Did you head inside at all or just do exteriors?

Great picture.

Engaging

Thanks peeps.

I generally don't go in the houses I visit. First because shit's falling down and I don't want to get hurt, but mostly because a lot of the time I'm trespassing already and don't want to make it worse if someone should come by. With this next shot the neighbor was on the lawn watching me take it.



And with that last one, a farmer left a combine right across the street from the driveway and if he came back it could have been a confrontation. So I play it as safe as I feel the situation warrants.

The condition of those houses, I think you are wise not to go inside!

Love the abandoned house pictures. Just think...at one time, all those windows were probably a luxury.

I read In the Bleak Midwinter. It isn't my thing at all, but I thought it was well written.

Thanks, SylviaC. It's a bit church-y, Jesus-y, religion claptrap-y, but will probably finish it. There was a book later on in the series that caught my attention and that's why I'm trying it, but will probably not go further. Too much I have to skip.

>43 Bookmarque: I always try and picture the abandoned house’s story. What were their glory days like?

Yeah, I wonder about them, too. Hope your face doesn’t hurt too bad today. I know how dental stuff can make you miserable.

I haven't been out shooting much. Just hanging at home, reading and enjoying Thanksgiving with our neighbors and her family. It was nice to walk over in the frosty air.

Lately I've been playing with a new software for developing photos. Adobe is going to a cloud solution which is great for people with high-speed internet, but alas, it isn't ubiquitous as Adobe seems to think. So I have another app which might be a replacement for Lightroom. The jury is still out, but I'm having a good time.



Just started a book about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's an early McCullough - The Great Bridge. So far it's a little dry, but I think it will change soon.

Phew!
Just got back from Wausau and got 23 books from the library book sale. $1.50. For all of them. Crazy. Here's my stacks.





It's a pretty good haul. Some are pure gambles, others are 1st editions or nicer editions of books I already have. I can give the ones they're replacing to a friend I bumped into at the sale after we got to talking about books. Now I have to get to cataloging. Almost as fun as reading. lol. Preaching to the converted.

Nice haul! Can't beat that price :)

I know, right? I was so shocked, but it makes books available to a lot more people for sure. There were many very low income or possibly homeless people picking out books, too.

Oh and there's also a lot of books in there that I know I will like because I've read the authors before so they're not all gambles. So fun. I have them all next to me on the couch. Don't you just love that??

Definitely :) Now comes the agony of deciding which to read first.

Nice! I’ve only been to our library’s sale a couple of times. I didn’t find anything in good enough shape to buy.

Some of the books I got look as though they weren't even in circulation. Others do, but none are wrecks and not all were library books, some were donations.

Of course I have some library books here to read before I can get to my stacks. One of which I think is a book I actually took out a while back. Funny.

And even funnier. One book is the 2nd in a series and I looked on Amazon for the first. It was 1.39 as a Kindle book. I paid almost as much for that one as the other 23. If it's good I'll find a used physical copy to match #2.

I can hardly believe it’s December already. Seems impossible. But here goes with the November reading wrap up -

10 books read
8 fiction, 2 non
3 by women, 5 by men, 1 by a man & woman team
5 new authors this month
The oldest was from 1847, the newest from this year

. . . . . . . . .

2 audio, 1 ebook and the rest physical
1 was a freebie, 4 I bought new, the rest borrowed from the library

Least popular at 10 - Writing Madness by Patrick McGrath
Most popular at 1249 - In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The best book has to be the McGrath because it’s the whole package - a beautifully made limited edition that has all his work that I didn’t have, plus I loved the stories and the time I spent reading them.

The worst was that most popular book up there. The characters were offensive and annoying by turns and the police work, shoddy. Plus religious claptrap in spades. Not for me.

Funny the best and worst were also the polar ends of popularity, too.

Wow, what a great haul from the library book sale! Drop city is on my tbr pile so I'll look forward to seeing what you think of it.

It needs a whole shelf on my TBR bookcase. I had to move a bunch of stuff.

I’ve had Drop City as an audio for years and have listened to it many times, so I’m familiar with the story and really like it. The book I bought was in good shape and will look nice with all the other Boyles. He can write the walls down!

Started a new book today and the myth of gray eyes continues. I haven't done this for a while so this is going back a few months!

Island of Bones
The Burial Hour
Surrender, New York
You Remind Me of Me
Celine
Altar of Bones
The Daughter
The Paris Secret
Sleeping Beauties
Gone to Dust
Blue Monday
Sleeping Beauties
Tuesday's Gone
The Price of Salt

We had 20 people here on Saturday and not one had gray eyes. Jeez.

>59 Bookmarque: I thought of you while trying to read The Enchantment Emporium, the whole family had grey eyes, and it was mentioned on almost every page. Some of them, apparently with age, or wildness, or gain of power, or lack thereof (the book didn't explain it in the chapters I read) have grey eyes that darken. Into black?! I dunno. One of the many unexplained things that finally frustrated me.

Oh man, a pox on gray eyes! And I hate the whole darkening or clouding thing with eyes. I have yet to see it.

I've been reading, out shooting a bit and playing with my new software in my archives. Here are a few of my favorites that have seen the light of day for the first time -

Adams Pond, Londonderry NH -



Falls Brook, Royalston, MA -



Grand Teton, Wyoming -



A wall somewhere in southern New Hampshire. Oh how I miss the stone walls!!



And yes, I went shooting a bit the other day. Not many winners, but few that I might post later.

Beautiful. I have old stone walls in my backyard and all through the woods beyond. They are lovely, and mark the many human incarnations that came before.

So many different kinds of beauty in those photos. I love the colours in the first one, and the stillness of the reflection.

Beautiful photos.

>61 Bookmarque: Very nice photography!

thanks peeps. In the inimitable words of Garth Algar - "I like to play."

Beautiful photos!

Thanks much. Those are all old shots, but I have chosen my favorite images taken in 2017 and if you want to take a look here's the link - https://wickeddarkphotography.com/2017/12/31/bestshotsof2017/

Before I get to my yearly lists and stats, I'll wrap up December -



8 books read
All were novels
4 by women, 3 by men and 1 by a team of one each
Only 2 of the writers were new to me
The oldest was from 1952, the newest 2017

7 were physical books and there was 1 ebook
3 borrowed, 5 bought
Of the 5 purchased 3 were new, 2 used

The least popular - 30 - was The Necklace
The most popular - 1960 - was Deception on his Mind

No really amazing or terrible books this time out, just decent reading with normal highs and lows.

Well poop.

There aren't enough posts here to make an official continuation to my 2018 thread. I've got most of it ready to go. Hm.

It occurred to me I can do my stats here and then maybe it will stretch it.

Like this post.

We would be happy to participate in a merry posting spree!

Would love to see your stats.

Wait, does that sound off-color? I'm reading books about euphemisms, so everything is starting to sound off-color.

I feel so violated.

Lol

Yeah stats. Juicy stats. With charts. Like this one.



137 books is a fewer than last year, but I don't care. My husband wondered at the steep drop off in April and I had a look and saw I was into several really long books at once, including an audio, so anything I might have started in April probably carried over to May, boosting those numbers.

Granularity coming up!

There are some nice curves in that stat. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

*Passes around the drinks to get the posting party started.*

What'll you have?

coffee

coming right up, sir!

Commerce dictates that I leave here and go to work. Our whole economy depends on it, and I will do my patriotic duty, so I hope others will carry on with the post party!

>74 Bookmarque: 137 is a quite respectable total; I hope there were some winners in there.

I have been tracking my reading progress by page count instead of number-of-books to balance out the 1000-page books with the 100-page books. It gives me a good idea of how much time spent reading.

doughnuts

>69 Bookmarque:

You could always post some of those great pictures.

>69 Bookmarque: How many posts are needed?

I will be happy to contribute

... to the total needed...

... to achieve...

... your goal

Oh, and 'macaroons'

>78 Bookmarque: Thank you kindly

Should we ...

... introduce @suitable1 ...

... to koeksisters?

The Afrikaans kind ...

... as well as ...

... the Malay kind?

Oohh...

... those look...

... delicious

I've never heard...

... of koeksisters before.

Hey guys! Here you go -

>101 Bookmarque: yay! CIDER DONUTS!!! You are a most gracious hostess!

I used to buy them in Londonderry back when I ate this kind of thing and lived in NH. Sunnycrest Farms makes them. They were wonderful. I miss them now and then.

Here's some detail -



and a year over year comparison -



Audio books stay fairly constant and you can see I still hit the library often, but ebooks have declined a lot. I remember reading on the nook outside far less this past summer than the summer I moved here. That's probably it.

Nice stats!

No fair..

You all had a thread spamming party while I was at work and couldn’t participate. :)

And only did half the job. :p

>83 ScoLgo: It won’t show the “continue this thread” option until the 151st post has been made.

>104 Bookmarque: Fun stats!

But alas I’ll have to stop here with this paltry contribution.

Maybe I can add a few more later.

Next time, please schedule your thread spamming parties for the weekend. :)

I"m all worded out, so sorry I can't contribute very much to getting your post count high enough.

>1 Bookmarque: You can NEVER have enough stats.

...NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>109 YouKneeK: 151?

Well...

All right then

A journey

of 151 steps

begins

with

but a

single

step

We're getting there!

I'm too brain dead from work to be clever.

>117 ScoLgo: Actually, it took

until 155 when

we did this

on Jillmo's thread..

this past Monday...

If people would just post more reviews...

...bills, schmills...

...quit work and read all day...

and post on LT....

That's the Pirates Life for me!

Of course,

I'll let somebody else go first.

Just to be polite.

Ok, worded out again...

@BookstoogeLT for the win!

You guys...

Are cracking...

Me up!

I left LT too early this morning.

I should’ve stuck around longer.

I could’ve had doughnuts!

so....

...close!

BAM!

OMG you guys are crazy!!! Thanks a bunch. I'll start a new thread! woo hoo!

Coffee?

>154 ScoLgo: Hahahahaahah!

Yay, you all made it! :)

Hahahahahahaha!