Busted!

It turns out, Tim does read my blog.  (Hi, Tim!)  At least he does when the spirit moves him, which I estimate will be about once a month.  I heard him giggling the other night right before bed, so I asked him what he was doing.  "Reading your blog!" he replied.  I'm not sure whether to be offended or flattered.  I'm going to go with flattered.

Otherwise, an update:

1.  Some people should stick to what their good at.  For example, Christopher Plummer is a great (in my opinion) actor.  A writer? Not so much.  I started reading his biography (650 pages!) and got 50 pages into it before I decided to quit reading it.  It was super boring.  It rambled and didn't make a whole lot of sense.  (As I typed those last two sentences, I realized that much of the same could be said about what I'm writing...hahaha.  At least I don't have a publisher and hope that people will read my musings.  Except my family.  I like think they read what I have to say.)  Anyway, it was going to be one of my biographies, but not anymore.  I'll stick with something more interesting.

Biographies Read:

1.  Maud by Harry Bruce - a pretty easy read, it was actually pretty interesting.  It was not as informative as it perhaps could have been and tended to ramble, but overall good.

2.  Hayden Fry: A High Porch Picnic by Hayden Fry and George Wine - This book was picked out by Tim.  I'd give anybody in my family $100 if they could tell me who Hayden Fry was without looking it up (a pretty safe bet, in my opinion).  To save you all the suspense, it's about the football coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes for the better part of the 1980s-1990s.  I didn't think I would enjoy it, but it was a pretty decent read and his stats were pretty impressive!

3.  Apolo Anton Ohno: My Story by (you guessed it!) Apolo Anton Ohno - Don't read this book if you are over 12 years old.  Enough said.

Classics Read:

1.  The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - I dreaded reading this book because I remember trying to read it as a child and thinking how awful it was.  It was better than I was expecting (probably because I'm adult now and can understand it better).  I chose the book that had lots of pictures and large print to make it seem bearable - and it was! Ha! My mind tricks worked.

Anyway, that's all for now!

Book Review 1/26: "The Man Who Love Books too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession" by Allison Hoover Bartlett

In an effort to put off reading "The Wind and the Willows" I decided to post my first book review for the aforementioned book.  (My other efforts to put off reading "The Wind and the Willows" included calling my parents to chat (who never called back - thanks, guys :), pulling out a 1,000 piece puzzle, taking a nap, and watching a movie with Tim.  It's been a productive day.)  So, in an effort to pretend like I'm back in school, here it goes!

Hoover Bartlett, Allison.  The Man Who Loved Books too Much: The Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession. (Riverhead Books: New York, 2009).

The Man Who Loved Books too Much, as the title suggests, follows the story of a man, John Gilkey, who steals rare books.  On the flip side, she author Allison Hoover Bartlett also follows rare book dealer and self-proclaimed detective, Ken Sanders, who is driven to catch Gilkey.

While the books is fascinating, the title seems a bit deceiving, as Bartlett mostly focuses on Gilkey - even "casing the joint" with him in the "name of research".  She portrays Gilkey as a self-centered bibliophile--a person who with a love of books who usually collects as well.  Gilkey justifies stealing rare books by stating that he is unable to afford them and therefore the world is denying him a pleasure that is out of reach for him, which is not fair. 

At the time of writing the book, Bartlett met with Gilkey many times--both when he was in jail and after his subsequent release--to which he gives her an inside scoop into his life.  Gilkey, she claims, is putting on a show, and she is the only member of the audience.  Because of this, Bartlett is given an inside look into his life of crime.  Bartlett is afraid of losing the story of Gilkey so rather than turning over information Gilkey passes on to her about his methods and items he claims to have stolen, Bartlett justifies keeping silent by claiming she is under no legal obligation.  She states that, after checking with lawyer friends, the statute of limitations has expired and there is no need to turn the story over to the police.  The rare book dealers would probably have something to say about this - and at one point, Ken Sanders tells Bartlett her methods are "disgusting", which is easy to believe.

Bartlett portrays Ken Sanders as obsessive about books (which seems a little obvious, given the title of the book) and as a little crazy.  She interviews Sanders mostly to get his perspective on how Gilkey ended up in jail, and that seems about the extent of her interaction with Sanders.  

While the book is interesting and an easy read, it is hard not to get frustrated with Bartlett.  In an effort to get the best possible story, she tends to justify her actions and claim that her actions constitute research.  She does not seem much better than Gilkey when, rather than telling him what he is doing is wrong, she goes along with him.  She does, closer to the end of the book, tell Gilkey that he is stealing from people who are in the business for a livelihood, but beyond that does put for much of an effort to try and stop him or at least warn the rare book dealers.  

Overall, The Man Who Loved Books too Much was well-researched and written, but could have focused more on the side of rare book dealers and Ken Sanders in an effort to write about what the title says the book is about.    

 

A Shout Out to Tim

On Saturday night (early Sunday morning?) I work up around 2:00...and let's just say things were NOT GOOD.  I don't think I slept until about 4:00 and even then it was on the couch sitting up because everytime I laid down my stomach felt like it was on a boat.  I couldn't even distract myself with reading (for those of you who know me THAT'S SERIOUS).  Needless to say, church was out of the picture Sunday morning as 1) I was massively sleep deprived and 2) I wasn't sure how my stomach was going to appreciate going to church and didn't want to have to make a quick exit partway through the service, and 3) I was freezing even though I was sweating...cold and clammy. Ick. Anywho, Tim went to church without me, and rushed home after church to see how I was feeling - bringing with him saltines and ginger ale for my poor stomach.  I didn't even ask him :)  Thanks, Tim!

Moving on, I have another story.  On Monday night I was doing the math for my challenges (see previous post) and was talking to Tim about choosing biographies.  I mentioned that I was going to google "biographies + interesting" and that it *might* give me some good ideas as to what to read.  Tim made fun of me (as I suppose he should - I should know how to do proper research considering I was a history major), thus challenging me to to go and google "biographies + interesting".  I will say right here that hindsight is always 20/20, as you will soon understand.  The first page that came up looked promising - it was titled "Top 10 most interesting biographies" or something like that, and the first person listed was "Edward Mordrake".  Now, I'm pretty sure nobody's every heard of him, abut apparently he had two faces, that couldn't eat or anything but apparently could laugh and talk.  He begged doctors to get rid of the face but they refused, so he killed himself.  There's no way of proving this, particularly because he lived in the 1800s and there's no actual record of him.  Anyway, this really struck Tim's funny bone and for the last two days he's been randomly saying "Edward Mordrake" in a fake British accent.  He was whispering his name last night as I was trying to fall asleep, which I attribute to the weird dreams I had last night.  So thanks for that, Tim.  Moral of the story: I should have never googled "biographies + interesting" because it got me nowhere and Tim being kind of creepy.

 That's all for now, folks! 

P.S.: I figure it's safe to post this, considering I don't think Tim actually reads this blog.  (And, Tim, if you are reading this - hi! Thanks for stopping by!)

Reflections on Challenges (otherwise titled: WHAT HAVE I DONE?!)

So I was trying (mostly unsuccessfully, to the enjoyment of Tim) to work out the math for my challenge--specifically related to the amount of books I have to read.  I have on my list to read 26 biographies (#8 on my list), 26 classics (#16), and write 26 books reviews (#20, other note - these ones can't overlap with the previous two).  If my math is correct, that is a total of 78 books I need to read during the year, which, honestly, shouldn't really be a problem for me.  But upon returning from the library today and looking at my selections, I realized that because of my challenge I'm going to have very little time to ready what I normally do.  

In other words, challenge #24 is to listen to 26 books on CD while I drive.  I was just doing the math out loud and realized that it is probably going to be impossible to actually finish that one.  I have about half an hour commute to/from work for the day, which means that in two weeks I get about 5 hours of listening time in for my books on CD.  I think the average book on CD is probably going to be 9+ hours.  In order to complete this challenge, I'm going to need to go through about 2 1/2 books every month....um, yeah, I may not be good at math, but Tim tells me it's not gonna work...unless I go on a few road trips. (That being said - roadtrip, anyone?!)

Speaking of books on CD, I was at the library and had about 30 seconds to choose a book on CD.  I figured I need to get this challenge started, so I grabbed the first YA Book I saw.  If I wasn't careful, I was going to end up with "Hank the Cowdog"--which might actually be preferable to what I did end up with.  It's called "Romiette and Julio" by Sharon M. Draper and apparently I should have read the back cover before I checked it out, because it is totally not my thing.   Tim told me I should just return it, but I panicked and NEED TO GET STARTED ON THIS CHALLENGE. RIGHT! NOW!

Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here is my reading list for the next few weeks: 

Biographies:

"Maud: the Life of L.M. Montgomery" by Harry Bruce

"In Spite of Myself: A Memoir" by Christopher Plummer (which happens to be 650 pages, so it had better be good).

Classics:

"The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame (which I'm hoping is actually good.  I got the one with lots of pictures in the hopes that it might enhance the story...)

For Book Reviews:

"The Man who Loved Books too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession" by Allison Hoover Bartlett.

I've been reading the biography of Apolo Anton Ohno (U.S. Olympian in speed skating) and it reads like a 12 year old wrote it.  Turns out the biography is aimed for that age group, so that's probably why.

Anyway, there's my update! It's mostly for me to keep track of things, but at least I can look back on it to remind myself...

Friday Randoms

I couldn't come up with a more creative title.  Sorry.  Actually, I'm trying to think of a creative way to talk about my blueberry bundt cake, but it sounds boring even in my head.  So, a brief synopsis: I made blueberry bundt cake last night while on the phone with mom (who was impressed with my multi-tasking. Yay me!).  It turned out awesome.  The end.  Also, the people who read my blog probably constitute about 5 people -- my family -- and they all know where I got the recipe (Cook's Illustrated) and could make said recipe themselves because they all have either a subscription or access to a subscription (yes, I mean you, Lynette).

A picture of blueberry bundt cake for posterity's sake

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I told my boss today that his handwriting leaves a little something to be desired.  His told me to "Be nice!"  I told him I was being nice.

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I think I have officially managed to post more times than Lynette ever did when she tried her stint in blogging.  If I quit today, at least I'm still ahead.  Although I supposed I could make it a goal to catch up with Josh and Chantale.  The problem with that is I live in Iowa.  There is nothing really ever to talk about.

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My Cook's Country subscription came with two "Best of 2012" cookbooks.  They came in the mail today. Yay! There are some really great recipes.  (Sorry mom! I had to brag - not only did I get my subscription cheaper but it also came with a free gift.  Never thought I'd say it, but sometimes there are benefits to living in the U.S.A.

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We finally had an ice storm casualty! I probably shouldn't be this excited about it.  I just dragged the branch to the curb and now my hands smell like pine.  I feel like a human candle.  Or air freshener. Or something along those lines.  Anyway, goodbye branch that probably should have been chopped off when we moved in (so that people can actually walk on the sidewalk)!

So big, someone had to walk around it! Or they were too lazy to walk over it.

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Well, this well has officially run dry.  For someone who can sure talk alot, I find it rather difficult to come up with interesting fodder for this blog.  It actually surprises me somewhat that most of what I talk about doesn't seem interesting when I think about writing it down.  Yes, I have that high of an opinion of what I have to say in relation to how interesting it is.  I may have to rethink that.  That's all for now, folks!

The One I'll Chalk up to Poor Life Decisions

So, the other night while browsing on Facebook I came across a recipe.  It required three things: refrigerated cookie dough, brownie mix, and Reece's Peanut Butter cups.  I didn't have any of those things on hand. (Please - brownie mix? refrigerated cookie dough? Pfft...that stuff's for amateurs.  At least that's why I like to think I didn't have that stuff on hand.)  Anyway, I didn't feel like going to the grocery store, but I know how Tim works and "casually" mentioned said recipe to Tim who, as I predicted, was right on board.  Perfect! He can go to the grocery store for me...

...it didn't quite work out that way.   About 10 minutes later I found myself at the grocery store with Tim--at least I wasn't there by myself, we were partners in crime--standing in the aisle, asking ourselves "Why are we here?" as we found our arms full of....well, junk.  So to make ourselves feel better we went to the fruit and vegetable section and impulse bought grapes (I realize the way to truly make myself feel better would have been to put the junk away.  But I didn't). 

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For the record, looking at fruits and vegetables and buying grapes didn't make me feel any less guilty.  I finally pulled out the grapes today and Tim had forgotten about them, which tells you about his feelings on the subject.

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Anyway, the recipe took about 10 minutes to assemble.  (How could it take any more time, really?? - put cookie dough at the bottom of a muffin tin, put a Reece's cup on top of said dough, and then pour brownie mix on that whole mess.  Cook it for 20 minutes.  How much easier does it get?)  It was described as "heaven" on Facebook.  I describe it as a cavity.   The result? Because I'm sure you're all so curious...it was good.  Totally not worth the money we spent on grapes, though.  In retrospect, it's not something I needed and was not as grand as Facebook made out to be (shocker, I know).  Which is why I chalk it up to a poor life decision.  But hey, I get to cross a recipe off my list!  Although technically my challenge doesn't start until the 26th...and I'm not even sure that the above thing constitutes a real recipe considering I didn't really do anything other than assembly.  The jury is still out on that.  

Anyway, that's all for now.  Later, friends! (Or whoever reads this.  Hi, mom!)