August 2023

 Books read. Looks like a lot, but it's not. The Corey was short (38 pp) and the Wells was really short (8 pp). Also not computed are the novellas in the Revelation Space series that I read in August (~250 pp):

• Squiggly Lines, by Mark Lattanzi. Put Mark's instruction to use this past weekend! 
• Snowblind, by Ragnar Jonasson. OK.
• How it Unfolds, by James S.A. Corey. Great! No, not in the Expanse universe.
• A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. Will continue to read her.
• Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. For the family book club. As mentioned, I'm not the audience.
• A Cold Red Sunrise, by Stuart Kaminsky. Can't wait to read the next one in the series.
• Compulsory, by Martha Wells. 

Books bought:

• The Subversive Copy Editor, by Carol Fisher Saller. $2 Kindle deal. 
• The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Besser. Bought for the family book club. $6.99.
• A Cold Red Sunrise. The only one I've not been able to find on Kindle deals, so paid full price for this one (worth it): $9.
• Fourth Wing. $14.99. Bleh.
• Compulsory. A buck. 
• Cacti and Succulents for Cold Climates, by Leo Chance. $37, the best price I'd seen in a long time. Had to get this book. I love these plants and would like to have some that can stay outside for the entire year.

56 books read this year so far. 

Cursed Bunny, by Bora Chung (tr. Anton Hur)

 What a great book of short stories! This book has been popping up on book blogs for a while now so I put in a hold at my local library and lo and behold, it came in! I loved this book from cover to cover. 

First off, there are 10 stories in this book, in 247 pages. The font is large and the pages are small, so you could read this book in a day or two. 

Spoilers, some:

OK, let's start with The Head. Holy shit. Scatological but with an interesting ending. Is there a moral there? "The Embodiment." Is the author saying something about men and their responsibility? Or, dare I? Women and their responsibility for the possible result of sex? The eponymous story was a good ol' curse story. "The Frozen Finger" is a good old-fashioned ghost story, with a twist. "Snare" is very much like the goose that laid the golden egg. "Scars" was probably my favorite, a combo Grecian myth and gladiator story. I want more. "Home Sweet Home" another ghost story. Good, but the "Finger" one was better. "Ruler of the Winds and Sands" is another old fashioned mythic story, a la Aladdin. Loved it. "Reunion" was definitely autobiographical. The author, talk about unique, is a Korean woman who earned a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University, who teaches Russian language and lit and science fiction at Yonsei University and (because all the aforementioned is not enough) translates Russian and Polish works into Korean. Damn! 

Spoilers 스포일러가 완료되었습니다

Read this book. This was so much fun. Plus it is a translated book, so now I'm at 3 more to go (out of 10) for Linguist level in the Books in Translation challenge.

Fourth Wing and A Cold Red Sunrise

 So Fourth Wing was our family book club choice. I'm not the readership for Rebecca Yarros. I'm about 40 years too old and the wrong sex. The sex scenes (Oh, spoiler alert) run on and on and on. So bad I had to click +15 sec over and over again. Like the John Galt speech of sex scenes. And if I hear about the main male character being hot one more time, I'll puke. Theory was good though and the author can write, I'll give her that. Very little over explaining (a couple of times) and telling, but not enough to distract. Of course, the requisite they as a single character (so dumb). Cut about 100 pages out of this 600+ page book and it would have been the perfect length.

A Cold Red Sunrise, however, another great Rostnikov detective story by Stuart Kaminsky. This is #5 for me. And thankfully I've got plenty more to read! This time our detective finds himself in Siberia. At first I thought the author wrote Tyumensk, where I went in 2010; alas, no, it was Tumsk. Our weight-lifting barrel of a man solves the crime in 2, 2 1/2 days. In expert fashion. Kaminsky really knows the Russian soul, which says a lot. His Russians (pretty much all his characters) are the same Russians I lived with for five years. Not only that, he knows Russia. Every description he writes is exactly Russia. Simply wonderful.

Now I'm reading a couple books. I'm still reading Revelation Space stories in order, just finished "A Spy in Europa" and am reading now "Weather." Also reading Cursed Bunny which is so good so far (about half done). Still reading Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia. 

Language-wise, a couple months into Hoch's Middle Egyptian Grammar. Early days still, but we're already dealing with present and past and pronoun suffixes. Only on chapter 3. Such a fun language, and the Collier & Manley course I did last year certainly is helping me on Hoch. And the next Esperanto Sumoo is coming up, still trying to decide which Esperanto book I'm going to read for that. Maybe Bluaj neĝoj?  Maybe Maskerado ĉirkaŭ la morto?

Still reading Russian articles when I can, mostly at work. Lots of Prigozhin articles lately. Hmm...I wonder why?  ))  

Revelation Space

 Years back I read novels in the wonderfully detailed Revelation Space world, by Alastair Reynolds. I think I read 3 or 4 novels set in that world. Been wanting good sci-fi recently so thought I'd re-read these books, but first looked up how many stories he'd written in Revelation Space. 

Turns out: a lot. Many short stories are set in this world. In fact, the novel Revelation Space doesn't show up in the chronological list until spot 18 (only 3 of the 17 previous are full-out novels). There are 22 total products in this world. I'd only read 5 of the books until I decided to start reading in chrono order. 

So I just finished "Galactic North," a short story spanning over 40,000 years of galactic history (!!!). But Conjoiners and Inhibitors and Demarchists all feature. Prior to this story, I read the two novellas "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial." Next up is "Night Passage," but for that, I had to put a hold on a library book (Infinite Stars) in which the story features. After that, I'm back to the short story compilation Galactic North which I already own. 

It was this or the Pandora Sequence again. That's my favorite Frank Herbert. (I know: sacrilege.) 

So this is what I'll be reading for a while. Who knows how far I'll go; we'll see after "Night Passage!"

Literature vs. everything else

 When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over a ball.

Thank you, Raymond Chandler.

That's it. That's the post.

Some recent reads

 Squiggly Lines, by Mark Lattanzi. Good refresher book on orienteering, which goes into depth on adventure racing and rogaine. Been wanting to get back into orienteering (did a few in Boston some years ago) and needed to remind myself how to do it. While searching for a book different from the oft-read-yet-still-awesome Be Expert with Map and Compass (Kjellstrom), I came across this one. The author also manages a rogaine in Virginia. w00t! So I bought his book and, after making sure our daughter can watch the dog Labor Day weekend, signed myself and my wife up for The Search for Big Mack. This book will help; hell, it already helped as today we went to Quantico Orienteering Club's Intro to Orienteering, where I got reminded yet again how to O. 

Snowblind, by Ragnar Jonasson. Number 1 of Dark Iceland (sounds so evil). Ok detective-type mystery. Someone's murdered (or is he?) and someone else is attempted-murdered (or is she?). My pick for the family book club and counts towards my 10+ translated books I intend on reading in 2023. (This one is #6.) Very atmospheric. Makes me want to visit Iceland. Not sure I'll read any others in the Dark Iceland series.

A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine. Great space opera with a well thought-out world. Memories of the dip circuit (mine) and Embassytown (Mieville's). Got this on Kindle Unlimited, hurray! and will probably read more in the Teixcalaan series. Looking Martine up now it doesn't surprise me she is/was a history professor. This book read so much like a classical history, perhaps Aztec or Mayan, maybe Greek or Byzantine. Well done, Doc!

How it Unfolds, by James S. A. Corey. Very short novella, 38 pages I believe. Great story and idea. Sadly counts as a book on Goodreads, but I'm on track to read more than 80 this year so no biggie. Anyway, there's more in this series, The Far Reaches. Not too sure if they're all in the same "world" or not. And not sure I want to see as I don't want anything to be given away. 

July 2023

 Whoa! Almost forgot.

Books read:

• The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self, by Michael Easter.
• La Horo 25, de Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu.
• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. Wife's choice for family book club. So good and original.
• Book Indexing: A Step-by-step Guide, by Stephen Ullstrom. Advanced reading copy from the author.

Not much in July due to a one-week vacation (Savannah is beautiful) and then one-week unexpected for my step-father. 

Books bought:

• Snowblind, by Ragnar Jonasson. My choice in the family book club. About half done.
• A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. Miss the Hebrides. (Pic of me there below.)
• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton.
• System Collapse, by Martha Wells. Pre-order. Won't get to read it till November 14. (Boy #2's birthday!)
• The Tomb of Tutankhamun, by Howard Carter. Folio Society sale! Can't wait to get this. Have been pining for it for a while now, the art in it. 
• Flashman #1 and #2. Found at a Goodwill while in Texas for the hospital/funeral. $1.99 each.

Book Indexing: A Step-by-step Guide, by Stephen Ullstrom

 As this is a non-fiction book, I'll not bother with the spoilers warning. I've long thought of book indexing as my post-post-retirement job. I admire great indexes and absolutely abhor books with crappy indexes. I didn't even know Indexer was a job. Assumed it was created by either the publishing company or some computer (how else to explain bad indexes?). But no, there are people who actually write these indexes. That was appealing to me, so over the years I've read a few books and many articles on book indexing.

So when an indexer I follow offered up his book on indexing as an advance reading copy, I jumped on it. I wasn't quite sure he'd want me as a beta reader; I've taken block A (of four) of the American Society for Indexing's professional certification course and I've read Nancy Mulvaney's Indexing Books and Do Mi Stauber's Facing the Text. That was enough for Mr. Ullstrom, so I got my pdf of his book. 

Ullstrom's book is divided into nine chapters covering all aspects of book indexing. The book is aimed at both authors who have to write their own index (or find a professional to do it) as well as those of us interested in indexing as a career. He does a good job reminding us that the index serves the reader, and for some is the first entry point to the book. 

Let's start at the beginning. What even is indexing? According to Ullstrom (and I agree), it "is about deconstructing a book into its components and reassembling all that information into an easily searchable format." And an index? "An index is a document created to help users access information." He gets in-depth on how indexes are structured: entries, arrays, main and sub-headings, locators, cross-references. What was new to me (or I did not remember from my previous readings) was supermain discussions. "Supermain discussions...are the key discussions of the book. Supermains flesh out the metatopic..." Metatopic I've heard before ("...what the book as a whole is about.") from Stauber's text. Another new term from Ullstrom is aboutness: "...recognizing what the book, at all levels of the hierarchy of information, is about." 

The book ends with several pages of resources for authors and future indexers: books and article citations, journals and newsletters, and indexing societies. Not to mention a great index.

Aboutness, metatopic, supermains, all help the indexer to develop the structure of the index, "how all the entries and arrays fit together." This is what leads to a great index. One should be able to read the index and grasp the author's argument. Reading Ullstrom's book will help an author, or someone interested in becoming an indexer (moi!), or a new indexer create a great index. And we can all agree, or should all agree, that indexes are integral parts of the books we read. Without a good index, we are left with reading through the entire book or several chapters to find the discussion we're seeking. 

I will be buying a dead-tree version of this book for my indexing/copyediting bookshelf. 

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

 Fun book. Very creative. 

Spoilers below:

So imagine you're stuck in one day. Yes, like that movie. But each day you're in a different body. Kinda. Instead, imagine eight people. You get to live in each body from waking to sleeping. Or death. You remember everything from the other lives. 

But why are you here? To discover a murdered. The killer of the eponymous Evelyn Hardcastle. You have to report who the murderer is if you want out of this hell. Oh, and there's someone in there with you who keeps waking up herself everyday, she just can't remember anything at first. You want to get her out of there too. 

The author did a great job managing the timeline. I picture him in a basement with a large whiteboard in front of him, tracking the wakes and sleeps off all the characters. And I wonder if he even knew when he began writing if he even knew who the murderer was or if he just wrote and waited till it came to him. The ending was quite surprising, at least to me. 

Spoilers done.

This book was this author's debut novel. Good work, Stuart! Great ride. 

Modern Renaissance Man

 Many, many years ago I dreamed up an idea of a magazine (then webzine) for the modern renaissance man (in the Old English sense of "human being, person [male or female]"). I was trying to come to grips with my many interests (fickle, you say?) and wanted an explanation (later resolved after reading Refuse to Choose). 

By David Martin - The White House Historical Association, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9390044

Depending where you look, you'll get varied definitions of renaissance man. One I like defined it as a man who "sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments and in the arts." Armed with that, I looked at my various interests and decided these are the areas in which I want to be learned:

• Science: ornithology (specifically birds of prey/raptors; corvus [ravens & crows]); fermentation
• Arts: classical guitar (not playing, but knowing); Bruegel, John Currin; Shakespeare; oriental rugs
• Language: English in all historical phases; Esperanto and interlinguistics; general linguistics
• Physical development: Swimming; orienteering; walking; lifting; misogi
• History: Ancient Egypt; medieval, esp. technology, war, languages; politics of language, esp. linguistic discrimination.
• Literature: Mid 20c British writers; English Catholic writers; literature about war.

Thus, here on out, I'll be tagging posts on books that are in the above subjects, with the goal of reading at least one book in each of those bolded areas once per year.

Some recent reads, 26 June to 9 July

 American Pastoral, by Philip Roth. "Read" this on Audible. It was okay. 3.5 stars if I were still doing stars. The best part of the Audible was it was read by actor Ron Silver (RIP, good sir). He was great. The one thing I like about this book is the American Jewish culture. Let me explain. 

When I was living in Moscow, my wife and I were friends with an Israeli embassy couple. The wife and I would talk periodically about our growing up. At one point I told Yael: Italian grandparents and Jewish grandparents, same same. And we'd laugh about it. Because it was true. My grandma not talking one morning because she'd overheard my grandfather complaining about how much she talks. Yael had the same stories.

This was that book. And the majorly best part. The story, the family, not that good. I'm sure that's what Roth was aiming for, but doesn't mean I have to like it. 

The Comfort Crisis, by Michael Easter. Preaching to choir, of course, but still a great read. (My wife has argued for decades, seriously, that we're all getting too comfortable. This book could have been written by her back in 1996.) Yes, Audible again. A book about what Denis Leary complained about years ago when he mocked people spending time on step machines (link to YT video). 

What's next? Leary asked. A chairmaster? I sit down, I get up, I sit down, I get up.

Or, the better comparison: the movie Wall-E was very prophetic:

I did learn about misogi in this book. I guess I do one of these serious challenges every year with my long swims, although they don't meet the requirement of a 50% chance of failure (granted, out of the 11 marathon swims I've attempted, I've DNF'd 4 of them). But since reading this book all I've thought about were crazy challenges that I'd like to do here in my local area. And in the spirit of misogi, I won't tell you about it. 

La horo 25, de Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu. Bonega libro, denove, pri mia plej ŝatata temo. En ĉi tiu libro, la primara karaktero estas rumana, kiu estis ĵetita en malliberejon komence de la dua mondmilito. Unue, en koncentrejo por judoj, sed finfine li estis en pli ol 20 koncentrejoj dum 13 jaroj. Amikoj mortis. Familianoj mortis, divorcis. Infanoj naskiĝis, mortis, brulis. Teruraj tempoj! Rumana klasikaĵo.