Bookmarque’s Padded Cell 2018 - Shared Delusions 1

No challenges here.
No goals.
No plans.

This is the Undisciplined Reading Room!

In here I read what I want when I want. If something isn’t working for me it usually becomes a DNF pretty fast. No qualms about that.

If you’re new to The Padded Cell I mostly read -

• Mysteries and thrillers
  
• History and books about science and nature
  
• Contemporary non-genre fiction
  
• A smattering of old books like Victorian Sensation novels and Alexandre Dumas
  

Annual Lists -
Books read 2017
Books read 2016
Books read 2015
Books read 2014

You can find my old reading threads here -
2017
2016
2015

Oh and I also post a lot of pictures like this one -



because I'm a nature photographer, too.

You can find my photography blog here
My book blog is here
My jewelry store is The WireSmith

And that’s about it for introductions. I’ll be posting my 2017 charts and graphs soon. They’re almost done!! Yay stats!

*thumbs up* You seem well-prepared for 2018.

I applaud your non-planning-ness...

Looking forward to your views of nature and all your reading discussions! I especially like your shelf by shelf thingies.

Happy New Year! Looking forward to more book reviews and gorgeous photography from you!

Thanks peeps. I'm planning to get out of the house today with the camera. Probably mostly abandoned type stuff and easy landscapes because it will be single digits again today.

But here's some stats from 2017 to start you off. I put them into the 2017 thread, but no sense putting all of them in two different threads so this is a bit of a repeat.

I read 137 books last year. It's fewer than 2016, but who cares? There is no major award.







You can tell that I still go to the library and that audio books hold pretty steady, but ebooks took another dip this year. I think it's because I'm reading less on the nook outside in the yard. I did that a lot the first year we lived here.

I'm looking forward to more of your photos and book reviews. I pick up a lot of nonfiction recommendations from you.

>1 Bookmarque: Very pretty picture!

Your photos are amazing!

I also enjoy your library adventures. I have made a pledge to myself not to spend money on books this year so I’ll be doing the library thing as well.

May this year bring you many excellent reads!

I'm looking forward to sharing in some of your delusions this year.

I'm SO sad my work computer does not show the pictures!

>1 Bookmarque: & >6 Bookmarque:

Great picture and great charts.

Good luck with 2018. I'll be here.

That is such a cool photo. Love the water patterns you captured.

Happy New Year! Enjoy your reading this year. That photo is beautiful. I look forward to hearing about your reading and seeing more lovely photos.

>6 Bookmarque: I like your idea of the bar chart that shows how many books you read by month. I might have to steal that to incorporate as part of my other graphs next year. Mine won’t be anywhere near as impressive in terms of quantity, though! :)

Love your thread title. Shared delusions are what differentiate people from the frankly psychotic.

I'm continuing to follow your reading threads and admire your deliciously beautiful photographs.

Thanks everyone. I have no reading goals for this year, like every year, but I do have a few photography goals to tackle. Hopefully you can see the results here.

The charts come from tracking stuff in google docs. Here's a couple more!

Gender split I track, but not much else about authors except whether they're new to me or not. Women writers were more numerous although it isn't deliberate. I just read what appeals to me no matter who wrote it. This year had a few multi author books made up of male/female teams.



and now you can see how things look year by year -

Anyone want some more stats?

Here's the fiction v. non-fiction chart -



And of those two big groupings, here's how they looked -



I think I read more NF last year than usual, but I'll have to look. Hm.

So...I go off into the woods for a couple days and no one is fascinated by my stats. lol.

I have stuff to post. More stats, or a sunset? Reader's choice!

>20 Bookmarque: Mesmerized is more like it. O_O

I want the stats and the sunset. Together both.

> I vote, "Yes!"

I vote for sunset.

Sunset

Ok. Here you go. Not the best I've done but I think I'll scope out better vantage points.



This reservoir is about 10 minutes from the house. I've paddled it further up river than down here, but this area is very popular for ice fishing. Shallow. Freezes early.

>25 Bookmarque: Beautiful.

>25 Bookmarque:
A fine sunset.

Very pretty.

>25 Bookmarque: well, you know, that'll do for now ;-)

>25 Bookmarque: I can almost smell the snow and cold. Hmm, just realized I've missed that smell this winter. We haven't had much snow.

>25 Bookmarque: Wow! That is glorious but I can almost feel the cold radiating from the picture!

thanks everyone! I took a chance and pulled into the parking lot to see if any color would develop. It wasn't that cold. About 30 F with a little wind. Earlier in the day I got too hot while hiking and had to peel off a layer and take off my gloves. I LOVE days like that. Clear, cold and beautifully snowy. Met a couple skiing. He was from here. She'd never seen snow before since she was from Brazil and she'd never been on skis. She only fell a few times, but got up laughing and having fun. I took their picture with her disposable film camera. Film!!

Anyway, up for stats now? Here's some more!

I'm still trying new writers thanks to the library system up here. Some will stick, but not all.



and I'm still reading a lot of newer books and front list. Library again!



Funny. I can tell you exactly what the 17th c books were - two Dumas and a Wilkie Collins. lol

Looks like the library is helping you stay in the modern century too.

>25 Bookmarque: Breathtaking! I recently watched a little video on Facebook about the noise ice makes. Almost a singing, they compared it to a light saber. Have you ever heard that? When I was a child, we had ice on our swamp. Enough to skate on, but I don't remember ever hearing it make that sort of noise. Only the "crack" when you've gone onto a thin spot.

Thanks MrsL. Sometimes on the river there are groans and creaks, but mostly it just cracks. I don't spend enough time on ice to really understand it. Maybe one of these days I will, but it just gives me the willies and I'm a big chicken. Even when other people have their Ford F150s on the ice I get nervous. It's crazy.

On another note, I've hit a run of bad luck. Don’t you hate it when you’re stuck in the middle of several books? Right now it’s like a plague with me.

A book on bats is too dry to be enjoyable.
A book on the Brooklyn bridge has too much engineering to be interesting.
A book by Stephen King and son is too drawn out to be tense.
An Elizabeth Hand book has way too much fantasy exposition for me to like it.

Ugh. I’m forcing myself through that last one, just to be done with it, but I’m skipping the chanting/dancing/hallucination/ritual killing/goddess worship bits. I picked up the sequel to this book without realizing it was a sequel. It was part of my last library book sale haul so cost all of twelve cents in the end, but it’s too much for me. I should remember my struggles in the past with this kind of story and stick to my decision to avoid them. The current fashion of “reading harder” gets to me, a little, and I think I might benefit from reading outside my comfort zone. Alas, I never do.

So I think I’m going to set aside the King book. Get through the engineering parts of the Bridge book (skimming or skipping) and just enjoy the pictures in the bat book and read the side bars. I hate it when I’ve read myself into the unhappy corner.

Beautiful sunset - fascinating stats

>35 Bookmarque: For a minute there, I thought you were doing the "B" challenge with my husband and I! Bats on the Brooklyn Bridge. :) Sorry about your reading corner. I've heard several people (including myself)mention that their January reading was going slow, or not as expected. Hopefully you will find an inspiring book soon.

I'm getting through it. Skimmed/skipped my way to the end of Waking the Moon. Ugh. My review it clear enough.

Another thing - I don't think farce and/or satire is my thing. I spend to much time worrying I'm not getting it. Or looking for the send up or skewer. It's frustrating because I wish I could just relax into it. Right now the book is The New Republic by Lionel Shriver. I have liked her work in the past and she can write like a house on fire, but damn this just seems like work to me even though on the surface it's sort of interesting. The characters seem to be kind of forced, but isn't that how it goes in a satire or lampoon? Maybe I really just don't get it, but I'm more convinced I do and that it's just not that funny.

Well enough of that. Here's some snow -

>38 Bookmarque: I love all that pristine snow - especially from the warmth of being tucked up in bed! Snow here is rare, enough snow that it doesn't rapidly just look slushy and muddy even rarer.

Thanks much. Plenty of perfect snow away from roads and farms here. It's -19 F right now so I'll be staying inside for the time being myself. Tomorrow it will be around 10 so I'll probably hit the ski trails. I think it's going to snow today.

I forgot I have some straggling stats to post - this time where I got books and if I bought them, were they new or used. Anything borrowed came from the Library. Gift basically means the ER program here or sometimes a Christmas or birthday gift...a freebie anyway. Oh or the Airplane Lady, those count as freebies, too.





Used may go up this year since I had such a huge haul at the library sale in December last year. My loose plan is to alternate between library books and those. At least for now.

Today it's snowing and lovely so I think I'll ski while I have the chance. Maybe tomorrow and Wednesday. Plenty of trails around here!

Airplane lady?

A few years back I struck up a conversation with a woman while we were in line on the jet bridge. As it turned out, we were sitting next to each other and when she turned on her nook it had mysteriously deleted all her book files. She had them on a USB drive and had a cord with her for the nook itself, but no laptop. I volunteered mine and she was able to get her books loaded again. She said I could have my pick of whatever she had and rather than go through them all I just copied the entire folder to my hard drive. 600+ books, most of which I'll never read, but some I have and some I will.

I LOVE these covers. No idea why Alice has anything to do with Dr J or Hyde or which he's meant to be (he's a non-drinking, golf-nut Christian, so clearly people are clueless), but it's funny -



Oh and then there's this one!



I guess Brando had some interesting stunt men.

And possibly my favorite -



Ebeneezer got himself a morning star! Or is it a mace? I can never remember which has the chain and which is fixed. Damn, that blind man and his dog better watch out now!

>44 Bookmarque: I'm just...I can't.

Oh come on. They're so awful they're great.

Anyway, here's some more snow!

I think the Alice Cooper one is my favorite, for the subtle suggestion that his artificial persona in RL is the "good" part and his RL activities are the "evil-crazy" part? Not that I agree or disagree, but it is certainly worth a double-take.

Lovely snow. I think we are over due for our snow-every-twenty-years.

>46 Bookmarque: lovely combination of colors.

Thanks Jim. We are getting more snow on Monday so I hope Tuesday or Wednesday to get back into the woods. There's another section I want to explore down the road. No trails, just lots of wildlife. I'm thinking of getting a blind this year so I can try my hand at critter photography.

>49 Bookmarque: Ooooo, crispy goodness! Love the fragility of that view.

Beautiful!!!

And applause on your stats, and your effort to shift the balance of your reading to greater equity. Awesome!

Hey, >1 Bookmarque:! As others have pointed out I'm here as much for your glorious photos as I am for your books reviews. Hope it's a great year for you on both fronts.

Thanks Clam! Glad you stopped by.

And now for something completely different. A rant.

I listen to quite a few audiobooks and I don't think I'm asking too much to coach narrators to pronounce place or proper names correctly. Especially when it comes to other countries. To wit -

Roosevelt is not Ruse-Velt (Seriously, you're a Brit and you can't pronounce this? I know Churchill isn't Church-Hill FFS!)

Michigan and Michelin don't have a hard CH like switch.

Maryland isn't Mary Land. Really? Mary. Land. What planet are you from?

Dupont circle isn't pronounced like it's found in Paris.

Poughkeepsie - I know it's a strange looking word and is funny, but dammit it isn't Poo-KEEP-see

And while I'm on the subject of Brit/American language differences - no American would say car park. It's a parking lot. If you have Americans in your books and you have them speak, check the slang and common terms. It goes the other way, too, I'm sure. Honestly. So annoying.

End of rant.

For now.

>53 Bookmarque: Ack! But really, I say it PO (long "o")-keep-see. Is that right? Because I'm not sure I've ever heard it said.

It's

Pu (short u like in put) KIP see

>53 Bookmarque: I think that might be enough to bring me out of the story :( Sounds like it was a bad narrator match for the book you're listening to.

All he needed was a good director or a coach. Or some common sense. Otherwise he was fine. Most of the action is in England and most of the players are English. Bah.

>57 Bookmarque: it seems ridiculous to me that this even happened, but I don't do audiobooks so maybe it happens a lot and I don't know. I would expect narrators to prepare for their performance in the same way as any other voice actor, who generally DO research pronunciation in advance, don't they?

>53 Bookmarque: Brits drive me crazy. They don't seem to care to try to pronounce anything correctly! This week I have been watching the Australian Open tennis and their announcers cannot pronounce "Dimitrov" which they pronounce DIHM-eh-trahv. So many ways wrong.

The weird thing, though, is how they use an American accent when they sing rock-n-roll. Don't believe the internet meme - they do it on purpose.

For me it's peculiar to this narrator, who, as I said, is good otherwise. He just needed to pay more attention.

So here's a little cabin in the middle of nowhere that I came across a couple of weeks ago (Knox, WI which is near Elk and Winter - don't you love it?). It's another vertical log structure which seems to be pretty common here. It attracted attention before I got there and I could follow in someone's footprints which was good because I forgot my gaiters. There was a garage to the right of where I was standing which was even more of a ruin - the whole roof was disintegrated and only partial walls were left standing. It was under a tree and not very photogenic so I stuck to the house.

Love that pic!

Wow!

>60 Bookmarque: Perhaps a commentary on the strength of the vertical log cabin?

Thanks peeps. I think vertical goes up faster than horizontal and probably takes fewer people.

>64 Bookmarque:

You don't have notch as many logs.

That's what I was thinking.

When it's foggy I keep the camera close. When on my way to an appointment I kept stopping. Good thing I left early!





Today=chores and reading.

>66 Bookmarque: I like the color composition in that top one. Very nicely done.

Beautiful pictures.

Even your fogs are picturesque! *sigh*

nice shots!

Thanks peeps! no fog today, but it's warm and snow is melting off the trees.

Nerd alert!

I’m one of those strange people who still clings to and uses an iPod classic. Yeah, I know, get with the times, right? But there are drawbacks to how we consume music these days - streaming is a no go for me due to no high speed internet. I still buy CDs and rip them. I still play them on my home stereo. The iPod in the car is key since satellite radio quality sucks and is really repetitive (hey, how about some more GNR?). Not to mention my audible account. So I need the capacity of one of the older iPods. However, they run on traditional hard drives and as we all know, those disks will stop spinning. And the batteries don’t last either.

So my latest project is to revive and upgrade 1 or 2 iPods I own (they’re both 160gb a 6 and 7th generation). One works and I use it daily. The other died years ago and has been gathering dust. I just ordered a kit to try to Frankenstien the dead one. New battery, adapter that takes SD cards, 128gb card and some tools and a drive cable. 128gb is all the 6th gen iPod will recognize, but the 7th gen can see and use up to a TB - woo hoo! All for fairly short money. There are videos that show you how to replace all these parts and it doesn’t look that hard.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to clean up my iTunes library. I’ve had about 6 computers since getting my first iPod and so the library is pretty messed up. Most of it was backed up onto my external drive and iTunes did a pretty good job of finding those files and putting them in order. I’m currently using another tool to delete duplicate tracks, find missing tracks and album art. The same company makes a bit of software to get tracks off your iPod and back to your iTunes library and that’s been great, too! It’s a bit “labor intensive” to use, but it works and I hope that my database will be cleaned up in the next few days. Then when I get the hardware I’ll try to rescue my old 160. If I can do that one I’ll do the new 160 have have two working iPods. Woo hoo!

It’s a library and needs upkeep just like the one I keep here on LT.

>72 Bookmarque: Good luck with the project. It sounds subversive; socking it to the world of planned obsolescence. I love it.

I like that aspect of it, too. Apple has discontinued all iPods I think...apart from maybe the little tiny one. Ironic since it was that very product that brought them the success and deep pockets they have now.

I didn’t know Apple discontinued the iPod! I still have two of them. I don’t use them, though. They are just sitting in a drawer. Good luck with the project!

>72 Bookmarque: I'm sort of in the same boat. My iPod is a dinosaur but still works beautifully. I also have my son's old one to use as a backup. But I'm in pretty good signal territory, and since I got my new vehicle I use the Bluetooth connection and my phone to listen to stuff. I am no longer sure if the work needed to tweak my iTunes Library is worth the effort.

Good luck and be sure to let us know how it goes with the resurrection.

My cars are so old they don't have Bluetooth, except now I've kinda-sorta inherited the Q7 now that my husband has a company car and it's new enough. Sometimes it finds my phone and sometimes it doesn't so I can't count on that. And I just can't be bothered to force it when it doesn't.

I don't have the hardware stuff yet, but I've been cleaning up my iTunes library and it's a bit frustrating, but I think I have basically everything backed up and in a place I can find it. This is going to be a big deal to put music and stuff back on the things once they've got the SD drive converters. They'll be empty.

I just had to share this cover. It's so bizarre!

>78 Bookmarque: Um, hmm, um.....

>78 Bookmarque: Great cover.

>72 Bookmarque: I have an old iPod I keep in a drawer at work in case I forget my phone. I must have music!

Isn't that the freakiest cover? I mean...in what twisted imagination was that born?

Anyway...I have the SD card, but that's all so far. I have enough music backed up to restore an iPod to a usable state...pretty much. We'll see what I'm missing that's necessary when I get the rest of the hardware.

Grrr. The amazon employee who packed my book bent the front cover all to hell. I complained to them, but I doubt that will get me anything.

I hate when I get a new item and it's basically wrecked. I got all the seasons of That 70s Show for my husband for Christmas and the box was smashed. Granted, I don't keep the boxes anyway, but it was still disappointing and didn't make for a nice present-opening moment.

>82 Bookmarque: I hate that too. Ever since Amazon started to save money by ceasing the use of bubble wrap I have been receiving damaged goods.

Like yourself I complain, but as you anticipated, nothing ever came of it.

>82 Bookmarque: & >83 pgmcc: Surely it should lie with Amazon to supply you with products that are in pristine condition (if new) and they should be responsible until it arrives with you. It's their choice of packaging and supplier after all. Have you tried going through the returns centre to arrange for replacements? I know this will add time in actually taking possession of the items in question so it's up to you if the trade-off in quality is worth the extra delay.

>84 AHS-Wolfy: I have returned items when it mattered to me, e.g. When it was a gift or I wanted to have a very good copy of a particularly attractive book.

>82 Bookmarque: I have always found their returns department helpful. Even when I only contacted them to say that somebody made a gruesome mistake by including raw beef bones not ordered in the package with my employer's laptop, they refunded $30 of the cost for the "trauma." I didn't ask for the refund, only wanted them to know that somebody was missing their bones.

eww.

That makes my bent cover seem so nothing.

But it is annoying. We'll see what happens with my complaint.

So January has gone. Here’s how my reading shaped up -

14 books read
All of it was fiction

.............

7 by women, 6 by men and one by a team
2 new authors this time out

4 audio, 2 ebooks and the rest physical
5 library books and 9 I bought
Of those 6 were new and 3 used

Oldest was from 1934 and the newest 2017
Most popular was The Club Dumas with 4897
Least popular was The Destroyers with 41

The best was a tie between The Barbarous Coast by Ross MacDonald because the man can write and he created a satisfying plot that was very convoluted and fun, and No Night is too Long by Barbara Vine because it was so deliberately and slyly crafted with a punchy surprise.

The worst was Waking the Moon because of its goddess worship claptrap, overblown prose and repetition. I really need to just walk away from fantasy no matter how much I might like the writer's other work.

>88 Bookmarque:
What did you think of The Dumas Club? I really enjoyed it. It was a chance find in an old, independent bookshop I frequent and where I have discovered many books by non-English speaking authors that I have loved. It must be twenty years ago when I found it and I now read any of Arturo Pérez-Reverte's standalone novels when they come out in English translation. I never got into his Captain Alatriste stories as I do not want to get sucked into a series.

That was a great reading month. I did not manage to finish one book. :-(

I'm just not trying, am I?

It was ok if a bit pandering. I liked that he didn't use physical danger to create tension. However, all of the female characters were terrible. Wish-fulfillment vehicles or mere props so that the men could have something to do/win/impress. It was insulting.

And who cares how many books you read?! Are you happy? Did you have a good month? That's all that matters.

The cover module produces some really cool stuff sometimes. Like this, I think, is an Edward Gorey cover. I covet.

Another great cover today!

>92 Bookmarque: Oh, I love that one!

>92 Bookmarque: I’ve never read it, but that cover makes it look kind of creepy.

Many people think that, because it's about rabbits, it must be cutesy. It is not.

>92 Bookmarque: That is perfect! To the rabbits, they are facing the apocalypse, though on a human scale it's barely a blip. That cover sums up the rabbits'-eye view perfectly.

>95 Bookmarque: & >96 Sakerfalcon:

I read the book and watched the folm. I enjoyed them both but I was surprised at the violence and brutality. It ws a shock to me how vicious bunnies are. Monty Python was right.

>97 pgmcc: I'm chuckling. But yeah, that book was a bit rough. Then again, didn't Peter Rabbit's father get baked into a pie by Farmer McGregor's wife. :o(

Did he? I guess that McGregor was harsh.

So I have two DNFs back to back. One pains me and the other doesn't, although I did pick up a second book by Sandra Brown at the library sale. The Sandra Brown is Envy which was weirdly dated in its outlook and attitude, kind of a 1980s vibe in Maris's victimhood. Plus it was predictable and not very well written. Someone actually said "my biscuits are burning" and then another person turned his wheelchair on a dime. That was the last straw. I'll try the other book I have, but not for a while. Instead I started the Guise of Another by Allen Eskens which so far is much better.

The one that pains me is The Porkchoppers by Ross Thomas. It hurts. I went with it longer than I would have with another writer simply because he does have a great command of language and style, but the racism was pretty bad in this one, even considering the time and situation. I don't think it was Ross's personal view on display, but that of the characters. If it was only that I could have borne it, but it was more. No one was having any fun. That's a hallmark of Ross's caper novels - that there is a wink and a nudge. A twinkle in the eyes of the rogues who try to pull off their schemes. Not in this one. It's just political chicanery grinding to a conclusion I didn't care about. So alas, it has been set aside for something more fun - You Can't Catch Me by Joyce Carol Oates writing as Rosamond Smith.

That IS an odd cover on Darwin!

I know it's so strange and nonsensical. Creation myth re a pagan goddess and some sort of anatomical drawing. I can't even imagine the drugs necessary to put that together.

Anyway...speaking of bunnies, look what I found the other day -



Size-wise it was somwhere between a snowshoe hare and a cottontail. In snow it's tough to tell.

>99 Bookmarque: I enjoy a Sandra Brown on occasion, but I have to let my standards take a break for a while in order to keep from throwing her books across the room.

Woo hoo! Suddenly your pictures appeared! And they are indeed lovely. I don't miss the snow, but it sure is pretty to look at from a warm distance.

I know what you mean, Jim and I can do that too sometimes, but not with that one. Oy.

thanks littlegeek, I'm glad you can see them. I don't mind winter since I have stuff to do outside, but lately it's been just a little too cold for comfort. Hoping to ski on Sunday though. It will be in the teens and x-country gets you all warm so it should be perfect.

OMG. Hilarious.



As far as I remember, there were no mermaids in Dangerous Liaisons. Why does she have two finny leg things? Well, I guess those lady bits do go missing with a traditional mermaid, don't they? And how the heck can she swim with that thing on her head??

>105 Bookmarque: I'm speechless.

>105 Bookmarque: That new translation must be *really* different to the one I read!

The cover module is so much fun sometimes.

Phew!
I got out of the house today. It was so warm it almost felt like spring.
Almost.

Nice

That's warm?! But very beautiful.

Yup. Lol

Warm becomes relative when you have weeks of below zero temps. It was almost 40 F. So, warm.

>109 Bookmarque: My eyes are leading my feet down that path. It certainly tugs and makes me want to follow, especially as there is that slight bend with uncertainty beyond.

After weeks of tropical temperatures (well, 70s in the day, 50s at night), we are heading into a week or so of proper winter temps, freezing at night, 50s or below in the day. Perfect weather to kill all the blossoms on the nut and fruit trees which came on too early because of the unseasonal warmth. :/

I hate when that happens, MrsL. The springs can be very harsh here and whole crops get ruined. A couple years ago apple trees didn't set fruit because the blossoms all froze. and thanks, I do try to make my ubiquitous trail pictures not boring.

Here's a detail of that same trail -

>114 Bookmarque: Super picture. Very arty.

Thanks pgmcc - I love little scenes like this. I shoot them all the time.

>116 Bookmarque: I love shots that show texture or highlight a feature that people might miss.

I do too and try to open my eyes to see what's really there -

iPod resurrection update



But it wasn’t without a setback. I still don’t know what happened exactly, but I have a workaround and hope that as a solution this setup is still viable. I’m putting this down in case someone else wants to give this a try. Feel free to skip if nerdy stuff doesn’t float your boat.

The hardest part is getting the case apart. My husband watched different videos on how to do it and he got it open although it is dinged up some. Once that was done it wasn’t too hard to replace either the battery or the drive. Was glad we did it together since sometimes you need three hands. Also glad there are lots of videos showing how to do this because it’s hard to see how the ZIF socket lock bars hinge; they’re so tiny. It recognizes the 128gb SD card and is now pretty full.

The setback was this - when I first hooked it to the laptop, iTunes detected it in “recovery mode” and had to restore it to factory settings. All well and good. I put some music on it, disconnected and it played. Then I put a 2nd SD card in the adapter (which has 2 slots) just to see if it would find it. Nope. Disconnected it again from iTunes and removed the second card. Then I hooked it up to the iPod connector in the car. The stereo saw the files, but they wouldn’t play. Weird. But we thought the device might be too old for the car’s software to fully deal with it. This happened with previous cars that we tried to use old iPods in.

Then when I connected it to iTunes a third time, it recognized it as in “recovery mode” again. Really weird since it found it as a functioning device before. Then it proceeded to get stuck during the “restoring” phase in iTunes. Nothing budged and I ended up disconnecting it even though the don’t disconnect message was up. No amount of resetting would fix it. I tried restoring it with iTunes three times and it got stuck in exactly the same place every time.

Eventually hubby put it on the Macbook and wiped the drive completely. He had the idea that iTunes was trying to write software to it that it was too old to handle. It doesn’t really make sense, but I just connected it to iTunes without the internet being on and it works fine. I don't see a way to avoid automatic software updates in iTunes so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do in the future though. I guess I’ll have to freeze iTunes at the version it’s at and only connect with the wireless turned off. Frustrating, but semi-workable. I still don’t know if connecting it to the car was an issue or not so I’m only using the all original one for that.

Anyway...geek out!

So this has been a very cool process to follow along! Thanks!

It has been sort of fun despite the software issue, which I hope I can find a solution to. Internet to the rescue!

---

For those of you who listen to The Readers Podcast with Simon and Thomas, this week’s episode is about reading as a factor in your romantic relationships and it got me to thinking. Back when I was in my teens and early 20s I thought it would be mandatory that I partner with a man who loved the same books as I did. At the time it was King, McGrath and Rice and assorted horror novels and some suspense fiction. And I had the usual relationships of those times and things shifted a bit. I started reading modern literary fiction and psychological thrillers. It was still important that he read, my fantasy man, but it didn’t have to be the same things that I liked. Also, he couldn’t denigrate or belittle my reading, something I vaguely remember a boyfriend doing.

Around this time I added historical fiction and "classics" to my mix. Maybe as a result of my expanded reading, or maybe just from life, I got to know myself more. I found out what was essential and it went deeper than mere reading. Then after another relationship that was a huge disaster, I met my husband who didn’t read at all. No books in his house apart from some ancient science fiction and spy novels from college. He was also bald, another thing on my no-no list. But the rest of him was so perfect that it ceased to be important. He didn’t care that I read so much and never tried to make me feel bad about it. That was huge. A lot of non-readers don’t get us and I wasn’t about to give it up so it was a relief that he didn’t feel that I was “wasting my time”. Or, worse, that I wasn’t focused on him while reading. I was 25, lucky and knew it. I still do.

These days he still doesn’t read apart from the WSJ and the occasional book about business or shooting or competition psychology and I don’t care. I still poke fun at him when a book shows up that he ordered. He still listens to me wax on about something with my current book as if he’s actually interested. Lol.

Of course though, I have all of you now. You get it and so I’d love to hear how reading or the lack of it has altered your relationships. Is it important? If so, how? Has that changed like it did with me?

Yeah, I’m nosy!

Crabby outburst for the day!

If you put the word adulting anywhere in your book description, you lose me. Don't care about your story or your message or whatever. OMFG. It's called growing the fuck up. We all do it. It isn't that hard and it isn't that easy, just get your head out of your ass and get on with it.

Adulting.

*Snickers*

As my boss would say, I'm laughing with you. :P

>121 Bookmarque: My college boyfriend was a reader. I thought it was essential in a partner. I should've been looking for other things because he was a goober. When my husband came along, I still had things I was looking for, but reading wasn't at the top of the list. Good thing, because he doesn't read much. In fact, he's dyslexic. He likes looking at pictures and reading captions so he has lots of airplane books around. :) And yet, he's agreed to a weekend at the Sylvia Beach Hotel (he will have a hard time being unplugged for an entire weekend).

>122 Bookmarque: Ha! It is a silly word.

Yeah, goobers are a waste of a woman's time. Glad you found better and that that reading isn't something of a stressor. Not that I think any sensible reader would put up with that for long. I can relate the unplugged thing. I think it's easier for me than my husband, but it isn't for either of us, really.

OK. Much like the cover above, this one gets filed under "weird snakey, animal women with things on their heads" -



I just. I don't know. What the hell does this have to do with anything in that book? Befuddling.

Woah. What year was that the cover for? It's greatly improved in recent times.

>125 Bookmarque: *jaw hits the floor* I looked at the picture first, and thought, oh, mild porn to attract someone into reading a spy book, or a mystery/thriller from the 70s. Then I saw the title.

I know it's so crazy. I'd expect this on H. Rider Haggard novels or Hesse, but The Princes Bride?

>125 Bookmarque: That's amazing. Inexplicable. Looks as if something got switched between Goldman and I can't even guess what.

With you 100% on "adulting." I haven't come across it, but if I do I might lose my lunch.

>125 Bookmarque: What? No ROUS’s? That is one freaky cover. I think everyone involved with it was on drugs.

Yep. I suspect drugs were a big part of this.

Before I head out for the day I'll post a shot from yesterday. I know everyone groans about winter (and really, move if you don't like it, sheesh!), but it can hang out here a little longer as far as I'm concerned.

>131 Bookmarque: Pretty. Yesterday, everyone in our office ran outside, because there were about 3 snowflakes, and a few pieces of hail falling from the sky! Hah. We are having a cold snap after two or three balmy weeks of temps in the 70s. Lots of blossoms have been nipped on the verge of blooming by Mr. Jack Frost. Oh well. At least it actually feels like February now instead of April.

It was dry, cold and crisp on the way into work this morning. On entering the building I commented to the security guard that is was fresh, i.e. very cold, this morning.

He responded, "Yes, and it's to get colder next week."

Obviously summer is on the way.

>131 Bookmarque: Lovely picture.

Winter is beautiful, but being in the negatives in February, not so much (my area had temps ranging from -1 to -10 this morning). Oh, and the mountains are supposed to get a blizzard this weekend, while my area is forecasted for a total of 12 inches by Monday morning. Unusual for this time of year. I was quite enjoying being in the 60s.

Apparently the cold spell we are expecting is due to an air mass from Russia that is headed our way. The media has christened it, "The Beast from the East!"

The North Atlantic Drift is supposed to prevent this sort of thing. I hope this is not an indication that the hypothesised failure of the life giving current is commencing. The hurricane we had last year was another predicted indicator..

Yeah, we had a bunch of negatives and singles all through the winter, so the 20s look pretty good these days and 40s is t-shirt weather!

To get this little scene, I put on the snowshoes, but was still almost to my knees in snow. Once I sank lower than that, almost to my hip. Funny.



Sorry about the current if it is failing, Pete. It's a bummer for everyone if the oceans get so screwed up. I hope the storm goes easy on you. How equipped for big snow is Ireland?

>136 Bookmarque: Not at all! Snow arrives so seldom no one has chains; driving in snow skills are the domain of the older drivers; stock pikes of grit for the roads get exhausted in a prolonged icy spell; traffic jams up and forty minute commutes turn into five to six hour sojourns.

It is great fun.

If the snow starts during the work day people panic and head home early. Any ice on the road leads to accidents and the people who left work early to get ahead of the rush meet all the other people who left early to get ahead of the rush and spend hours negotiating their way around abandoned cars and queueing on roads that get clogged in the early rush.

As I said before, it is great fun.

I find the buses are the most reliable transport during snowy spells. In our last big snow, 2010, the buses just kept going for the two months of snow. They were cancelled on only one day and that was the first day of the heavy snow. After that the bus lanes were snow ploughed and the frequency if the buses kept the lanes passable.

Sounds a lot like what happens in the southern states when they get a freak snow. Ugh. I hope it goes easy on you.

Heading out to ski shortly. It's getting into the low 30s and it's brilliantly sunny. woo hoo!

Beautiful photos - I like winter at a distance!

>122 Bookmarque: I have an acquaintance who frequently boasts of her attempts at 'adulting' - which in her case appears to mean everything from paying bills on time to any kind of house cleaning. The word alone irritates me, her need to brag that she's doing it . . .

>137 pgmcc: We too are being threatened with snow (probably nowhere near as much as you however, so you distinctly have my sympathies)- however, here, the first thing to stop is the buses if the least bit of snow settles on the ground or if there is ice. Looks like I'll be walking to work next week, if predictions come true.

Yeah I know it's a cliche, but that generation seems to want/need adulation for every little stupid thing they do. A participation award for life. Oy vey.

So here's some more winter at a distance. I am glad I was there to be in it because it was lovely.

Spectacular photos, as usual.

"Yep. I suspect drugs were a big part of this." To be honest I suspect 'not reading one word of the book' was a big part of this, for both the artist and whoever was in charge of this particular volume at the publisher. Very odd...

thanks Clam, and yeah, I think sheer ignorance played a big part as well.

Oh and here's a fabulous barn I drove by the other day -



So typical of Wisconsin barns. Love them.

I haven't read it in a long time, but damn if this cover for Misery isn't pretty perfect!

Yep. That is one cover I can get behind!

Love the winter photos! It's snowing in London as I write, but quite gently and the sun is already appearing again. I like snow but Peter's description of how Ireland copes with snow goes for England too. The rail companies cancelled some trains yesterday before any snow had even fallen - you can imagine how frustrated the commuters were at that!

For all that we're northerners and should be used to it, sometimes authorities jump the gun here, too, and cancel all kinds of stuff before one flake has hit the ground. It used to take a blizzard resulting 10 feet of snow before I got to stay home from school. Bah.

More winter? Yes, please!



I've shot this little marsh before by climbing on a tall beaver dam. This time I waded into snow up to my knees - with snowshoes!! All you can do is laugh and get the shot.

The snow is pretty but it would drive me bonkers that it sticks around for so long. I would not make a good northerner.

Sticks around? It's February...it's supposed to. ; )

I had some time in the library yesterday and in addition to a bunch of CDs I got this little stack -



I started Word by Word while waiting in the doctor's office and it's so great. Subtitled The Secret Life of Dictionaries, I think that gives you word nerds a clue!

It's snowing again today so winter is still with us! I don't mind. I will probably put the snowshoes on later and see what I can see. Yesterday 4 deer came through the backyard and they all looked great! Sleek and alert, nice fur and no bones showing. One looked pregnant, so that's cool. One was this year's fawn so that was nice to see.

Anyway, you know what time it is!

February Reading Rewind
Well that was quick!

11 books read
10 fiction, 1 non-fiction
4 by men, 7 by women
3 new authors, 8 recurring
1 audio, 1 ebook & the rest physical
6 bought, 2 freebies, 3 from library
4 new, 2 used
Oldest from 1996, the newest from this year

..........

The most popular was Burning Bright with 1904 copies on LT
The least popular was The Enigma of the Owl with 18 copies on LT
The worst was The Guise of another with 2 stars
The best was a tie - The Burning Girl and The Enigma of the Owl with 4 stars each. It just wasn’t a great fiction month. Lots of so-so books.

So it's the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and SP Books is putting out an edition of her original manuscript! The cover is inspired -



It is a bit pricey, however, and as it's a manuscript, it's hard to read. It does have Percy's annotations and her notes back to him though and that would be neat to experience. It seems that her original text is more linear and fierce, at least according to those who have compared it to the published version. I'm torn, but am holding off. Doesn't it look lovely though? The cover is really the slipcase.

I haven't talked about my shop much, but I thought I'd share some recent items I put up for sale. If you're looking to treat yourself or someone else, check it out.







Store is here = https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheWireSmith

>152 Bookmarque: I wondered how your shop was going. I recently thought about setting one up to get rid of some of my vintage costume jewelry. Decided I didn't have it in me right now.

It's going, but I've been ignoring it too much so have kicked myself in the butt. It's work, but I enjoy it and my work is a step above a lot of the stuff out there.

Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean my yellow jumpsuit doesn't make me invisible? And I even found matching Keds and everything. These things can see me? Oh shit!!!! Good thing I have Beardy MacTweed to manhandle me to safety!

Hahahaha! Where do you find these?
Wait, it was a tv show?

I guess it was. Looks like high budget material to me!
I get them from the cover module on the home page. Someone recently added this for the book and I have the book cataloged so it shows up. It's really funny sometimes. No snake women with things on their heads lately though.

The picture is from the 1980s BBC series of the book. It's actually very good as it sticks very closely to the book. The triffids are obviously of their time though....
BBC did another version a couple of years ago where the special effects are of course better but the series itself was very average.

>155 Bookmarque: That's the cover of my copy! Your commentary on the image is perfect!

Thanks! Here's another lovely. I find that covers for this book are either creepily appropriate or ridiculously awful.

I couldn't get through this book, but sometimes the covers are insprired!

>155 Bookmarque: That's hilarious! :o)

Lovely earrings, btw.

thanks, clam. Lookee what I bought today -

Oooooh! What is that strand of pale blue stones? They're gorgeous. Looks like it says Aquamarine!

>163 Bookmarque:

One of these things is not like the others.

They are aquamarine. Not sure what they will go in, but something soon. Anything you are thinking of? I’m thinking mixed silver and gold. I have some rose gold things coming...

Yeah, I always include a shot of some pliers for scale.

>166 Bookmarque: I wasn't thinking of anything other than that they are lovely. I'm trying to not buy anything other than food until after I move. LOL I've started going through my shit piles in the basement to unload as much as I can. So much stuff has accumulated here in 17 years.

I hear that. When we moved to Sconnie, I couldn't believe how much crap we had!

Ugh. Lots of DNFs lately and there may be another one soon. When will people learn that Glocks don't have traditional safeties that can be checked. OMFG. If you're going to write about guns, do a little research. Jeez.

I haven't been reading or posting much because I've been working. Who knew a "part time" jewelry business could take up so much time?! lol

Anyway...I'm having my first ever sale starting tomorrow. If you're curious about what I make, have bought before or are looking for a gift, check it out!



www.thewiresmith.etsy.com

Phew!

Oh wait!! I shouldn't say I'm not reading. I am. Audiobooks.

When I can concentrate on a book I've usually got one going while I'm working out designs, making pieces or taking and processing pictures. So far The Chalk Man has been pretty good. It's different than most thrillers in a strange way...a lot of the plot is delivered obliquely so that you have to think about how a bit of information fits into what you already know. It's a good thing I'm an audiobook veteran and have been listening to them since the very early 90s. It's a skill to be able to process this kind of story audibly and I'm glad I have lots of practice.

Still busy with the shop. Making things. Taking pictures. Promoting. Writing blog posts. So much for a part time job. lol. But I enjoy it and will be easing back a bit to make way for more photography stuff since spring is coming and so is my Argentina trip. Maybe I'll get some reading done on the plane!!

In the meantime, this is the last day of my sale. One lovely LT-er (who I won't name unless she says it's ok) made a purchase and that was so nice. Check it out if you want a gift for yourself or someone else.

www.thewiresmith.etsy.com



and here's a picture of a waterfall from the other day!



This is Red Granite falls on the Bad River in Wisconsin...about 2 1/2 hours north of me.

>171 Bookmarque: Fantastic photograph. I would love to see the Red Granite falls without the snow too.

If I get back up that way, I’ll stop. The snow is melting, but we got a lot of it and the nights are still at temps below freezing.

It will be a longer wait. We got 8 inches of new snow!

This is from February, but it still looks like this.



I was almost up to my knees...with snowshoes!!

March was a bit of a slow down due to ramping up the Wire Smith. Lucky for me I’m an audiobook listener of long-standing so I can always listen while I work out designs or make finished products. Phew.

I did read other books, too, though...and here’s a look at what I got through -

.........

10 books read - all fiction
7 by men, 3 by women
2 new authors, the rest were familiar
4 audio books, the rest physical
6 I bought, 4 borrowed
5 were new, 1 was used

Oldest from 1983 and the newest from this year
Most popular was Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Least popular was You Belong to Me by Colin Harrison

Best was Sunburn - Laura Lippman’s excellent homage to James M. Cain
Worst was a tie between Less and Mrs God - the first wasn’t as funny as other people thought it was and the second was a touch too inscrutable.

How'd you like Commonwealth? I didn't hate it, but it doesn't measure up to Bel Canto or State of Wonder IMHO.

ETA: Your jewelry looks fantastic, but I'm not buying myself anything (well, besides food) until after I get settled into my new home and I get my current place sold.

>175 Bookmarque: How did you like Paradox Bound? It's on my "maybe" list.

hey clam - Commonwealth was good, but yeah, it didn't have the distinctive voice that Bel Canto had - I remember that being lighter and a lot funnier than I expected. I liked Commonwealth more than State of Wonder though.

Thanks on the jewelry. Spending time at the bench today.

Have you read any other of his books, Narilka? If you have you'll find this one is pitched a little lower. It's less frenetic than The Fold and less quirky than 14. As a reader you know more about some things than the characters, but they also know more than you and some are holding cards close so other characters stay in the dark. But it's charming, too, and ends nicely.

I just finished The Fold and really enjoyed it. Was thinking to make 14 my next Clines book when I want another scifi-thriller-horror and then possibly circle back for Paradox Bound.

14 is fun in a Scooby Doo kind of way.

Between my business venture (check out my new website if you have a chance - www.twsjewelry.com) and getting ready for Argentina, I haven't been reading much. If it wasn't for audiobooks I'd have way fewer last month for sure!

I did read actual books though...and here’s a look at what I got through -

.........

10 books read - all fiction
7 by men, 3 by women
2 new authors, the rest were familiar
4 audio books, the rest physical
6 I bought, 4 borrowed
5 were new, 1 was used

Oldest from 1983 and the newest from this year
Most popular was Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Least popular was You Belong to Me by Colin Harrison

Best was Sunburn - Laura Lippman’s excellent homage to James M. Cain
Worst was a tie between Less and Mrs God - the first wasn’t as funny as other people thought it was and the second was a touch too inscrutable.

Since my time is now so short the DNFs were plentiful!
The Arrangement - Sarah Dunn
Word by Word - Kory Stamper
The Beggar Bride - Gillian White

Phew!! I've got plenty of ebooks on my iPad for the trip. It's 10 hours just from Atlanta to Buenos Aries and I know I won't sleep the whole time. Not much downtime while there for reading so the plane will probably be my best opportunity.

>181 Bookmarque: Enjoy your trip and we will be waiting for photos! :o)

>182 clamairy: What clam said. No pressure. Lots of pictures. Honest; no pressure. Pictures every day.

>181 Bookmarque:

It appears that pictures are expected.

>182 clamairy: A separate Trip Report thread with numerous pictures is mandatory. No pressure ;-)

>181 Bookmarque: - Pictures? That would be wonderful!

Am on the first plane now and promise to post pics as I can, but most will be after I get back.

Bon voyage!

Have a great trip!

Thanks peeps - on the plane for Buenos Aries!

Safe travels! I hope you have a wonderful time!

Happy and safe travels! Enjoy every minute.

Wing away and have a lovely trip!

Enjoy your trip!

Just tried to post a pic that’s up on Flickr, but the weird short url is a problem. If you’re on instagram, find me there - @the.wire.smith - it’s the best I can do for now.