Book List: 4th Century, 3rd Quarter

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I have just finished reading book #375 since I started keeping count in 2015, and, as I have done when occasion suits and time permits, I here present a listing of the last 25 books I’ve read. Make of it what you will. (As usual, I do not include comics and graphic novel books in my count, though they are listed below.)

That 375th book read was many books in one, or rather, the parts of many books made one, or instead, let us say that Italo Calvino creates the fractional books his protagonist comes across in the course of this … novel? I am talking of If on a winter’s night a traveler, in case you have not already guessed, and I have still not decided what I think of the work, or works. Creative tour de force of literary genius? Or self-indulgent slumgullion stew of unfinished and unworkable ideas? Perhaps there is no reason to choose.

This last set of twenty-five books read commenced with #351, a quickie read from the Audubon Nature Program, Life On A Coral Reef, which I wrote about in an earlier post.

Also read right at the beginning of this latest quarter-century of books was the 4th issue of The Month at Goodspeed’s Book Shop, a discursive catalogue of the latest arrivals at a wonderful bookstore in Boston known to me only through these tiny staple-bound volumes, of which I have quite a few, actually. Calling these little books ‘catalogues’ is very much an understatement, for the delightfully chatty notes for the promoted items, which include history, biography, and much bibliographic detail (as well as a good bit of sheer gossip), are still well worth reading today. Unfortunately, I will have to find a time machine to visit the store, as it closed in 1995.

# Read Author Title Genre
351 9/17/19 Russ Kinne Life On A Coral Reef Nature
352 9/18/19 Norman Dodge The Month at Goodspeed’s January 1930 Books
353 9/19/19 Roy Vickers The Sole Survivor and The Kynsard Affair Mystery
354 9/22/19 Christopher St. John Sprigg Death Of An Airman Mystery
355 9/23/19 Norman Spinrad The Mind Game SF & Fantasy

 

 

I wrote about The Devil Of Nanking earlier, so I won’t repeat myself here, save to say that it is, after all, a novel, not history. The book about the great Paris flood is a good read, and I also enjoyed a little comfort food science fiction. I have since sold off one of the other books in this set, though not because I didn’t try to sell two.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
356 9/24/19 David H. Freedman & Charles C. Mann At Large: the Strange Case of the World’s Biggest Internet Invasion Computers
9/24/19 Mark Waid & Alex Ross Kingdom Come Comics & Graphic Novels
357 9/25/19 Jeffrey H. Jackson Paris Under Water History
358 9/29/19 Isaac Asimov I, Robot SF/Fantasy
359 9/30/19 Mo Hayder The Devil Of Nanking Mystery
360 10/4/19 Arthur C. Clarke Islands In The Sky SF/Fantasy

 

A lot of good stuff in the next little slice. I wrote about Mission of Gravity earlier, and here will only repeat that it is great science fiction of the hardest steel alloy. I also finished a Norton critical edition of Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass (with The Hunting Of The Shark included); I believe I should read the Alice tales every hundred books or so, though I haven’t kept quite that pace. I had been going through this one for some time, and am glad to get it off the pile next to my bed. All of these books—save one—are highly recommended.

# Read Author Title Genre
361 10/6/19 Lewis Carroll Alice In Wonderland (Norton Critical Edition) Fiction
362 10/8/19 Hal Clement Mission Of Gravity SF & Fantasy
10/8/19 Jay Kinney, ed. Anarchy Comics No. 1 Comics & Graphic Novels
363 10/10/19 Edgar Allan Poe Tales Of Mystery Fiction
364 10/15/19 Harold Lamb Genghis Khan: Emperor of All Men History
365 10/17/19 K. Paul Johnson The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge Wacko

 

Primacy of place in the next five books goes to an 88-page book from 1897, an annotated issue of Thomas De Quincey’s long essay, Flight Of A Tartar Tribe, part of the Maynard’s English Classics Series. The subject of the the book was a natural follow-up to both the Blavatsky and the Genghis Khan books, and De Quincey’s stylish prose is almost always a pleasant read; this was no exception.

The Ariana Franklin mystery books annoyed me with their psychic anachronism, and the Orbit anthology may have annoyed me because of mine. The Peter Rabbit book, however, was really wonderful, and I was surprised to find that it took me over a half-century to get around to it.

# Read Author Title Genre
366 10/19/19 Thomas De Quincey Flight Of A Tartar Tribe Essays
367 10/23/19 Ariana Franklin Mistress of the Art of Death Mystery
368 10/28/19 Ariana Franklin A Murderous Procession Mystery
369 10/29/19 Beatrix Potter The Tale of Peter Rabbit Children’s
370 10/30/19 Damon Knight, ed. The Best From Orbit Volumes 1-10 SF/Fantasy

 

Finally got around to reading The Moving Toyshop, which I found amazing, terrific, wildly funny, and very engaging—right up to the point where the hero solves the crime. The ridiculous solution was not the sort of ridiculous which had merited the glowing adjectives of the previous sentence, but the sort of ridiculous that spurs men and women to write declamatory letters to the editor. I forbore such a course of action, given that the author is long dead. The other books here were all very good, and the soft reading provided by the Retief stories was a nice pre-palliative for the mental exertions required by Calvino.

# Read Author Title Genre
371 10/31/19 Edmund Crispin The Moving Toyshop Mystery
372 11/4/19 Groff Conklin, ed. Giants Unleashed SF/Fantasy
373 11/5/19 Beatrix Potter The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin Children’s
374 11/12/19 Keith Laumer Retief At Large SF/Fantasy
375 11/18/19 Italo Calvino If on a winter’s night a traveler Fiction

 

 

Still reading a lot of Science Fiction, as well as some Children’s books located on shelves I have regained access to. My pace has slowed a tad lately, as I am attempting NaNoWriMo once more, though I am writing a memoir rather than a novel. I still have piles, but thankfully they are of books. Until next time….

 

The lists of previously read books may be found by following the links: