Reader’s Notebook, 9/17/18
A couple NYC trip books. The Secret of Golf – Joe Posnanski Joe has moved to a Patreon model for his online writing. As much as I love him, I feel like I’m already subscribed to about a dozen content services that I’m paying for each month, so I have not become a supporter of his site. Yet. I was…
Reader’s Notebook, 8/30/18
Man, how did I get so behind on these? Well, part of it is that my reading pace has remained slow in recent weeks. It doesn’t help that I have a stack of golf instructional books that are stealing time away from my proper reading stack. I’ll quickly run through some recent books. Notes from a Public Typewriter – edited…
Old TV + Reader’s Notebook
As I’ve documented here many times over the years, sometimes I get paralyzed by the many options I have for watching quality TV. There is a long list of shows that I need to go back and watch, but I’m always torn about where to start, whether to watch one to completion on its own or to start several at…
Reader’s Notebook, 7/17/18
Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen I’m a Springsteen fan. But not a super fan. I like large swaths of his music, think four of his albums are pretty amazing, and appreciate his role in American rock music. But I’m not deeply aware of his story, can’t quote his lyrics beyond his biggest hits, and have never seen him live.[1]…
Reader’s Notebook, 7/3/18
Our internet-less summer continues. Joyous times. We checked in with the fine folks at the Comcast store on Saturday. Golly, they sure had no idea why our request was still just sitting there without anything being done to it. The guy who helped us was the guy who put our initial request in three weeks ago. When we asked him,…
Reader’s Notebook, 5/30/18
My reading pace has come to a nearly complete stop over the past few weeks. That’s a shame, because I’m pretty sure I was on pace to have my best reading year ever. George Brett didn’t hit .400 the entire summer of 1980, so I guess I was due for a slump. Manhattan Beach – Jennifer Egan. I read this…
Reader’s Notebook: 4/30/18
The City of Mirrors – Justin Cronin This was my spring break book, the final in Cronin’s super virus/vampire trilogy. In this book, thought it took him a long time to get going, offering a lot of background in the first half or so. Some of the background, that which centered on the life of Tim Fanning and how he…
Reader’s Notebook, 4/4/18
The Kremlin’s Candidate – Jason Matthews Interesting timing, with this coming out right around the same time as the movie adaptation of Red Sparrow, the first book in the trilogy it completes. Matthews has been lauded by folks who know a lot more than me as an author who can combine good spy novel plot with offering realistic tradecraft, something…
Reader’s Notebook, 3/27/18
It’s pouring rain outside, I have a sick kid on the couch, so today seems like a good day to get caught up on books. Round Ireland with a Fridge – Tony Hawks. This was a timely read, found at the library on a shelf of books pulled in advance of the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. It is exactly what…
Reader’s Notebook, 3/6/18
My torrid pace of reading in 2018 continues. I knocked out two more books in the Y: The Last Man comic series and am still enjoying it. And I’m still working through Nick Hornby’s Ten Years in the Tub. And then I knocked out a few other books over the past couple weeks. End of Watch – Stephen King “End…