But man do I love to buy books! If I were to ever get lost of hours in a store it would be a bookstore. I went to Powell's in Portland once and would have moved in if that were allowed. The only problem is that my book purchasing habits had been outstripping my book reading habits. Given the less than stellar year I had in 2016, I wasn't really in the reading mood. (More the watch mindless TV and try to keep existing mood).
So! I made a challenge for myself - to finish a book a week every week during 2017. Ambitious, I know! The reward? Bragging rights and pride. Plus, you know, the joy and mind opening wonders of reading. Duh! First thing, I did what any self-respecting person would do and made a fancy tracker! And because I love stickers and have limited inspiration for crafting, I made it all fancy. A little art supplies, a little printed Excel spreadsheet, and magic! I even made an envelope for my gold star stickers. Of course I get a gold star each time a read a book, because nothing else is special enough.
This week marks week 20 of my reading challenge. I just finished a book called "I Love California," which I believe was written by and self-published by a guy from my hometown, back in 1959. I found the book title rather ironic as about 4 out of 5 stories involved someone's tragic death, whether it be in a boat sinking, being shot in a duel, being shot by some bandits, being shot by someone you wronged, being shot for insulting someone's mother - gold rush era California had a lot of shootings. I did at one point want to reach back into history and give this guy some good news, as one story lamented the fate of the once great Delta King riverboat. Evidently as of 1959 it was being used to house aluminum workers. And later it sat have sank somewhere in San Francisco. But I was all "wait, I've been to the Delta King, on the Sac river." So I Googled it, and 25 years after the book the current owners saved the Delta King. So that's a happy ending!
Here is a picture of my bookcase. The top row are all the books I have not read, and many of which will help me complete my finish a book a week challenge. The sad thing is, I just took this picture this evening, AFTER already finishing 20 books. This week I will finally open up enough space to have 0 books stacked on top of the row. (You can also see my cups of bookmarks where I move them from one to the other when done so I don't under- or over-use any of my many bookmarks).
A very interesting thing happens when one reads so many books in such a relatively short amount of time. I end up seeing interesting correlations between the subject matters of some of the books. I wonder if it's coincidence that books I read back to back have related content. Or maybe I am just drawn to certain books with similar stuff in them. Or maybe psychically I'm just picking books off my shelf that relate because I "know" they relate. Most likely it's just my brain and how it likes patterns and relating themes, so I could probably relate anything to anything.
What exactly else have I read this year? Good question. Honestly, as I sat down to create a list, I realized I can't rightly remember all of the books I've finished, as the ones I read at the start of the year tend to blur with the ones I read last year. But I think I mostly figured it out.
I read a whole trilogy - the Red Rising trilogy by some dude who's pretty cute. (Googling age appropriateness and relationship status...) Basically it's a sci-fi book with an oppressive social structure. From reading it you can pick up on the author being highly influenced by Roman history and mythology. I read this series (or it could be more than one series doing the same thing) where each book is some pop culture topic where people write philosophical essays about that pop culture topic, using whatever philosophical paradigm they think fits. In past years I've read ones for Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland (very whimsical), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Lord of the Rings (most depressing), and I may have more. So, I found Red Rising and Philosophy, which made even clearer the Roman influences, especially from Plato's Republic. I took a Latin literature in translation and a classical mythology class in college, so I too am a fan of the ancient Greek and Roman times.
Sometime in between reading these books I also read excerpts from Niccolo Machiavelli's Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. I found it interesting to see writers from different eras both inspired by and making commentary on classical ideas of government. Of course in modern times we can write way more interesting things because we have things like sci-fi. I feel bad for Machiavelli because he had some good points in his writing. And he was intentionally misconstrued in his writings of The Prince (which I read a few years ago), so that even to this day his name is most unfairly and harshly associated with not being particularly nice.
The Discourses early on discuss how there are 6 types of governments - 3 good ones that must eventually devolve into the 3 bad ones - a principality to a tyranny, an aristocracy to an oligarchy, and democracy to anarchy. He then argues that a strong government should contain all three types of government so as to help better prevent deterioration. This made me think about our US government. It could be said to have all three types, in that the President as executive is like a prince, the judiciary like an aristocracy, and Congress as a representative democracy. I even tried to Google whether the founding fathers were influenced by Machiavelli, but it all just wanted to talk about The Prince. Geeze, he wrote other stuff! But then it worried me about what if all three of these branches devolved into bad forms. We very clearly have a President trying his hand as a tyrant. And it seems on the brink of anarchy with Congress and the people they represent - I don't know if any real laws have actually been passed, and people are ripping into their representatives left and right. Let's not forget to mention that many of those people probably don't get they are actually governing a nation, and are more concern with reelections and hating the other side. Grow up! Which reminds me of another point he made. Titus Livy argues that the masses are more fickle than a Prince. But Machiavelli disagrees. Yes, the masses can be fickle, and yes they can cry out for something one day and the opposite the other. But he argues Princes are just as bad. But at least with the masses they more likely have the laws in mind. Plus, a Prince being in charge can do much more damage. This again makes me think of out current situation. I think even as the sentiment of the masses that seems to come out in the media may change (for or against this or that), it's usually people caring about taking care of people (although sometimes it's not nice). But then look at a President who is just as fickle, for or against the same thing at different times, back and forth. It actively affects many people's lives. The masses are different individuals speaking up at different times, so the change doesn't have to be the same people. But when it's one person being inconsistent, or erratic, it has much worse consequences when that person's in charge.
Recently we finished our work book club book, The Untethered Soul. I hated it. You can read my Amazon 1 star review for more details. Basically he took a bunch of ideas of finding your center and being open to the world from different religious and culture places, stripped all the context and substance away, and tried to sell this agnostic idea of connecting with yourself (except the last chapter where he made it about Christian religion after saying in the first chapter the book was not incorporating any religion - liar!!). I then read a Star Wars and psychology book that included an essay no more than 10 pages that much better explained the concepts than this 180ish page book, plus it actually used the source culture so it made sense AND it used Jedi as examples. Everything is better with Jedi.
Last week I read Ready Player One, which I am sad that I missed this book earlier because it was fantastic. My little brother was super excited to find I finally read it. My desk neighbor at work was also excited about it, since he's read it a few times and raves about it. I really have a thing for futuristic dystopianesque stories. Although, people forget that true dystopian stories require a bad ending where the evil regime wins. I may have to write one of those books to remind people. ;^)
As it's getting late, and I have fulfilled my 30 minutes of writing (and then some!) for the day (first time in too long, oops), I will end with a quick list of other books I've read.
- 3 unpublished Jane Austen stories, 2 of which were unfinished. :^(
- Paddle Your Own Canoe by Nick Offerman - OMG so good! A must read, if you don't mind the drug, sex, and cursing, but like in a wholesome, heartwarming way.
- Two Years, Eight Months, and 28 Nights by Salman Rushdie, my fav author
- One week I kind of cheated by reading the smallest book I had, some 40/50ish page tiny book with a couple speeches - one being George Washington's farewell address when he decided not to be President anymore (you know, before such things as term limits existed)
- I read a couple books on Change Management to help at work :^)
- Lost Symbol by Dan Brown - I read this for about 3 weeks, after I complete books early - the goal is to FINISH a book a week.
- Wild Beauty by Anna Marie McLemore - because I am fancy and got an advance copy to read. So everyone has to buy one when it comes out later this year!
- Bossypants by Tina Fey - may have partly inspired me to finally sign up for that improv comedy class I'd been wanting to take for a few years now (class #3 tomorrow)
- Emotional Intelligence - I learn I have great EQ, not so much many other people I know. Someone should make them read this book.
What's next? Well, 32 weeks to go! And then, when the year ends, since I will have earned some Barnes and Noble gift cards through my work, I will buy more books! And probably reread Harry Potter since it's been a couple years, and in 2018 I can finally reread books again.
