Bibliofile - January 2015

Surprised to see me? Yeah, I know I said I was through with blogging but owing to mounting pressure from my many loyal followers to share my ongoing reading habits - thanks Bryan - I've sheepishly caved in.

I'll be brief because I don't want to block up the blogosphere. (I'd hate to bump a post about kittens.)

I got through 6 books this month. A slow start to 2015, I know, but it's all part of my new and relaxed approach to life. Or something like that.

Among the highlights were Canadian musician Bruce Cockburn's memoir. Apart from being a great musician, Cockburn is an activist and quite spiritual. The latter two qualities take up quite a bit of the book but it's nevertheless interesting to see what makes the guy tick.

So Anyway... by Monty Python's John Cleese was a bit of a disappointment. He hardly talks about his days in Python at all. I think it's just a cash grab because I think he's still paying alimony to three wives. Or maybe I'm just Pythoned out having recently watched a six-part documentary on the comedy troupe.

The best read of the month was Punishment by Linden MacIntyre. It was a page-turning thriller which one review I read compared it to the likes of Dennis Lehane's Mystic River. And I love Lehane.

Here are the books I read in January...

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Rumours of Glory - Bruce Cockburn
The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft - H.P. Lovecraft
So Anyway... - John Cleese
Punishment - Linden MacIntyre
Gray Mountain - John Grisham

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! You know what happens on Imagination D

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

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

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

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