Bibliofile - November

November was a very productive month in terms of reading for me. I went cover to cover with 9 books. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Ding, Ding. Ding. Ding.

Holy crap, I've cracked 100 books since January. At the end of October, I'd read 92. Add the 9 from November and I now stand at 101. That's a far cry from the 30 I estimated on Goodreads at the beginning of the year.

Again, detective novels formed the majority of the books I read. I zipped through the 6th and the 7th in the Kurt Wallander series by Swedish Author Henning Mankell, the 6th in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, the 11th in the Elvis Cole series by Robert Crais and the first in the Harry Hole series by newly discovered Jo Nesbo. These were all good. I quite enjoy this genre. My only problem is that these guys have all written so many books I wonder if I'll ever catch up with them.

A highlight of the month had to be Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen. Fagen is half the creative duo known as Steely Dan. The book is autobiographical and covers several of his musical mentors and influences in several chapters and then in one long chapter he humorously describes what it's like to tour for a guy in his 60s. During a 2012 summer tour with Boz Scaggs and Mike McDonald, Fagen kept a journal. He shares it with us in his book and it's hilarious. For example, he writes:

Mike, Boz and I are pretty old now and so is most of our audience. Tonight, though, the crowd looked so geriatric I was tempted to start calling out bingo numbers. Nevertheless, by the end of the set they were all on their feet, albeit shakily, rocking out to Mike's performance of Buddy Miles's "Them Changes". So this, now, is what I do: assisted living.

Another enjoyable read was Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Having read his latest, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I was told I should read Neverwhere. So I did and I loved it. Thanks, Bryan G. Robinson, for the recommendation.

So here's my list for November, and I'd recommend every one of them:

Worst.Person.Ever - Douglas Coupland
Eminent Hipsters - Donald Fagen
The Fifth Woman - Henning Mankell
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
The Bat - Jo Nesbo
The Anniversary Man - R.J. Ellory
Chasing Darkness - Robert Crais
Without Fail - Lee Child
One Step Behind - Hanning Mankell

I've got a couple of books on the e-book shelf I'm looking forward to getting to. So December should be interesting.

Happy reading.

My Back Pages - November

I know, I know, I know I should have reported in before now. But sometimes real life just gets in the way. I attempted 5 books in November. I say attempted because I slapped a big DNF (did not finish) on Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. I just can't seem to get into this guy. It's the second or third of his I've given up on, Not so the other four, starting with a biography of Stephen Stills called Change Partners. This followed by a hilarious biography of the guy responsible for National Lampoon called A Stupid and Futile Gesture - How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. I ended the month reading yet another biography, this one of the man behind Rolling Stone magazine,. It was called Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. A fascinating read. So last month I hit the magic number 50 I'd imagined for myself back in January. If I roll this month into my yearly total I'm at 54 books. And I still hav...

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

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