Reading Sherlock Holmes

Somehow, in all my youthful reading, I missed Sherlock Holmes. I read one of the short stories, I think, while I was in high school, but nothing more. In my adult years, perhaps ten years ago, I bought a paperback volume of Sherlock Holmes stories at a used bookstore. Read two short stories in it and laid it aside.

A few years ago I read about the Norton Publishing version of the "Sherlock Holmes Canon", as they called it. It was in three volumes, with the stories extensively collated and footnoted. I believe, though I'm not sure, the stories were put in chronological order in which they would have taken place, not when they were written or published. A. Conan Doyle did a lot of backtracking in the stories. In 1904 he published some of Holmes' cases that were earlier in Holmes' career than were the ones he published in 1894.  Reading about this set got me interested in Holmes. The Norton books were much too expensive, so I waited. Barnes & Noble came out with a two volume hardback set, minus all the footnoting and ordering. When it went on the remainders table, I bought it.

That was a year or two ago. Recently Lynda and I finished our the series we were reading aloud in and were ready for something else. I suggested Holmes, and she agreed. She's always liked crime books and mysteries. We are now well into the series. Of the four Holmes novels, we've read the first three: A Study in Scarlett, The Sign of the Four, and Hound of the Baskervilles, and two volumes of the short stories and are well into the third. The B&N books are arranged chronologically by date of publication.

So how am I enjoying them? Hmmm, perhaps not as much as I'd hoped, but that's mainly due to the language use. These stories are only 120 years old, yet the English language has changed, as has practice of writing. Some things that readers would turn away from in disgust these days are practiced regularly by Doyle. For example, he constantly repeats the first and last names of people in dialog and speaker tags. That's a no-no drilled into us by writing instructors. He tends to fixate on words. One example is "singular," a word that has gone out of fashion today. He will say, "He was a singular man." Meaning, I guess, he was unique. Actually, in the context it's not always clear exactly what the word singular means. I can see why it's gone out of fashion. One use of it wouldn't be too bad, but when you read three stories in three days and "singular" is in them six or eight times, you notice.

We find we can't read these every day, as we did with our previous series. We read a story one day, and take a day or two break. The writing style is what slows us down, not the story contents. The plots show Doyle's genius. Each of the stories we've read so far is quite unique—dare I say singular? Doyle mixes up the kind of cases. They aren't all murder mysteries. Sometimes they turn out not to be crimes at all, but instead an accident, or something unintentional.

We will persevere in this. Only six more stories in this volume, two more volumes of short stories (as originally published), and one more novel to go—a short-ish one at that. I suspect I'll have another post or two on Sherlock Holmes.

What Kind of Book Reader Am I

I can't remember where I picked up this article. From a link on a writing blog, I know, but which one. Give me a minute to do some searching...

...Okay, found it. Not at the blog I expected. I did a Google search for "What Kind of Book Reader Are You?", and found this article at the Atlantic Wire. This isn't about the type of books people like to read, the genre or subject matter. Rather it's about how someone relates to books. The article lists these types of readers.

The Hate Reader

The Chronological Reader

The Book Buster

Delayed Onset Reader #1

Delayed Onset Reader #2

The Bookophile

The Anti-Reader

The Cross-Under

The Multi-Tasker

The Sleepy Bedtime Reader

These are not all self-explanatory. The hate reader claims to hate reading, but deep down loves it. The chronological reader reads books in the order purchased. Neither of these are me. I love to read, and admit it. And I don't worry about the order I read in. I try to mix fiction with non-fiction, and break down my non-fiction reading among self-help, writing books, Christian books, and a few others. But except for that, I read whatever piques my interest at the moment. If I buy a new book it is likely to go to the top of the reading pile, even if that pile has twenty books in it.

The book buster is close to me: "home strewn with books scattered about, this way and that," except I don't do the unintentional book destruction part described in the article. The D-O #1 is also close to me: buying more books than I can possibly read in my busy life, and reading fewer than actually come in the house. That's definitely me. The D-O #2 is NOT me. That is a book displayer, not really a reader. Yes, I display my books, but I read them too.

The bookophile loves books and reads them, but actually loves the book more than the reading. No, that is definitely not me. I love to read, and I don't care if it's a magazine, a flyer, a comic book, a short story, or what it is. Give me something to read, to while away the hours, or even the otherwise idle fifteen minutes, when I'm not working, writing, sleeping, maintaining what I must maintain. Er, I guess that's not a lot of reading time.

The anti-reader is close kin to the hate reader. Not me. The cross-under reads books not really intended for their age group. Not me, though I will, at some point, take in the Harry Potter series. And I'm definitely not the sleepy bedtime reader. Reading in bed just doesn't work for me.

That leaves the multi-tasker, which the article defines this way:

...you are a promiscuous reader, but it's not that you don't finish reads. Instead, you just have a sort of hippie reading way about you, free love or some such. You might start the day out with a few pages from one novelist, then read something entirely different on the subway, and when you come home from work, another work as well.

That is definitely me, though I shudder to be associated with the hippies. I'm glad my promiscuity is directed toward books, and not the other.

How about you? What kind of reader are you?

What to read next?

As indicated in my last post, I finished reading War Letters. Now I'm looking for the next read. I have my reading "pile," arranged almost three years ago, rearranged several times when I obtained other volumes that I couldn't wait to read, and slowly chipped away at. The next one in the pile is Last Chance for Victory, a 500 or more page book about the Civil War, especially a Southern perspective on the Battle of Gettysburg. Do I really want to read that next? I started reading it when I got it, read 20 or so pages and found it quite interesting, but it's a long book. I think I'll read the Introduction before making up my mind.

Then there's The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain. I began reading them a couple of years ago, as I reported in this blog, but pulled off them. I found reading them to be tiresome. Each one is good, but I'm convinced they were not written to be read one after the other. I might read one or two more before tackling my next book, and make that a practice till I finish them.

I need to be reading a book on the writing craft. I have several in my library, and will look into them over the next couple of days.

Although I've slowed down on my book purchases, even used books, I have several that I've picked up over the last six months that I could incorporate into the reading pile and read next. These are:

• Henry James: The Imagination of Genius, a Biography, by Fred Kaplan. I know nothing about Henry James, other than that he is well regarded in literary circles.
• Stories by O'Henry. Since I'm writing some short stories, I figured I'd better read some by the master.
• The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. I've read little of Faulkner, and must someday fill that gap in my literary makeup.
• John Keats Selected Poetry and Letters I may actually have this one, and the volume I recently bought would be a duplicate. But this one is older and will look better spine-out on the shelf. I don't plan on reading this soon. I've read a fair amount by Keats, both poems and letters, though more of him awaits my reading future.
• Leonardo da Vinci: The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection. Who couldn't stand to read more about da Vinci? Actully, this will go to the bottom of the pile. I mainly bought it because it appears to be a 1938 first edition. I have the reference book to research this, and will do so after I get the book home.
• The Changing American Voter by Nie, Verba, and Petrocik. It's a 1976 book, so a little older, but I figure this might be worthwhile research for The Candy Store Generation.
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre. This one is really for Lynda, though I'll probably read it at some point.
• The Reagan Diaries by Brinkley and Reagan. I would love to get into these, but I usually find diaries and journals too intense to read straight through. I've already started Reagan in his Own Hand, but found it too intense to finish. I should finish that before I start something else by Reagan.
• The Federalist Papers. This is my second copy of them: one to keep at home and one at the office. I should read some more in this for future editions of Documenting America. I also think I might need to read a few for TCSG.

How many of these might come to the top of my reading pile? I'll let you know soon.

Thirty Minutes of Foraging

So yesterday I had a delivery to make in downtown Rogers, a set of engineering drawings to the Rogers city engineer. I've been waiting for this opportunity, a trip to Rogers on my own, so that after my business was up I could take time to visit The Friendly Bookstore, also located in downtown Rogers. I had not been there since they moved to a new location almost three years ago. Downtown Rogers is not far from our office (a little over 6 miles), but with gas prices the way they are I just don't drive 6 miles out of my way. The bookstore turned out to be a mere three or four blocks from the City Admin building.

This is the bookstore run by the Friends of the Rogers Library. It is an outstanding store. Prices are close to what you expect at a thrift store or yard sale, but the supply is huge, more on the lines of a for-profit used book store. I never go in there but that I come out poorer in dollars and richer in volumes. Yesterday was no exception.

Of course, book buying for me is like therapy, or comfort food (and with my restricted diet I need all the alternative comfort food I can get). It boosts my spirit. Yesterday I dropped $17 there, but am the richer for it. Here's what I found:

--Orthodoxy: The American Spectator Anniversary Anthology. 491 pages of conservative essays from 1961-1986.
--The Hogarth Letters. Some letters from the early 1930s commissioned by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Not sure what this is really about—hopefully literature—but the price was right.
--The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Vol 3 1923-1928. I'm not a big fan of VW, but I am a fan of letters, and of writing and writers, so this should be good.
--Coleridge: Poems and Prose Selected by Kathleen Raine. I already have a fair amount of Coleridge material, but nothing to keep at the office. Now I do.
--The Writings of Arminius.

The Arminius book was pricey at $6.00 (well, pricey for me), but it will hopefully turn out to be a treasure. Arminius was a theological influence on John Wesley and the Wesleyan/holiness movement. It's something a wannabe Wesley scholar should know something about. Today I began reading it, and am not disappointed. Except, I am disappointed that it is only Volume 1 of a three volume set. I can get the entire three volumes from an on-line bookstore for a mere $44.00 plus $4 shipping and handling. That would bring my total investment in James Arminius up to $50.00 I'll have to think about that.

None of these will go in my reading pile, which is in desperate need of reshuffling. They are more resource books and occasional reads when nothing else tickles my fancy. I won't touch the letter ones till I finish the letters of A Conan Doyle, begun a year ago but set aside for other things. Still, I'm looking forward to this comfort food.

An Evening at Barnes and Noble

So I put in a lot of hours at work this week, about 50 through Friday, and I'll work at least seven today and maybe five tomorrow. The work load demands it, the wife is out of town, and I'm able to do my writing for a couple of hours in the evenings, so why not try to get ahead of the workload curve? I'm not getting much recreation, and little exercise (though I walked at noon yesterday, ten minutes in 20-30 mph winds). Still, I've been eating well, my weight is falling, and I have little or no desire for snacking. Maybe giving up chips and soda for Lent is a good thing.

I decided to treat myself last night and after leaving the office at 6:00 PM I drove 2.2 miles out of my way, a true expense with gasoline at $3.459, to go to Barnes and Noble. I usually do this at least once each time Lynda is out of town, though didn't the last two times she deserted me for the grandkid(s). I browse through the remainders tables, and sometimes find a bargain. I look through many of the aisles, looking at lots of books, and every third trip in have to buy one. I daydream that mine will be there someday, though I know the odds against that are astronomical. Eventually I grab a magazine or three from the rack, buy a vente house blend, and sit in the coffee shop and read. Normally I can't do that for very long, for Sidelines Syndrome takes over and I feel I should be writing. So I leave halfway through the vente and head home and thence to The Dungeon to write.

But last night I was in the store almost two and a half hours and suffered not at all from Sidelines Syndrome. I didn't buy any books tonight, though I found three that were tempting. The first was The Kennedy Detail, written by Gerald Blaine, one of the Secret Service agents assigned to JFK. Focusing much on Dallas, he speaks of how the agents felt in losing the man they were sworn to protect. I read in this for over an hour. Someday I'll buy it, but not for $28.00. The second one was Founding America. This caught my eye because it is mainly a compilation of original documents from 1774 to 1791, with a few editor's notes. The idea is sort of what my Documenting America is. We have no reason to be ignoring source documents in favor of historians' sifting through them and in the process giving opinions. Read the documents; they aren't difficult to understand. I didn't buy Founding America, though I was sorely tempted, and the price was better at $12.95 (I think it was).

It seems to me much has changed in Barnes and Noble. I find fewer shelves of books and more display tables. These tables hold fewer books than the shelves they replaced did, and some have games, puzzles, or other non-book items. At the front, where latest releases were once displayed, is a Nook display. In some places in the store a major amount of shelves have been removed in favor of even larger display tables.

The teen book section seemed to be larger than before, the poetry section smaller that the even minuscule size it have been previously, if that's possible. Reference books seemed to occupy fewer shelf-feet. Cookbooks even seemed to be reduced, as maybe were travel books.

These latter things people now get on line. Google for a reference. Google a recipe, Google a destination. Or Bing them. As a result B&N doesn't need to stock as many books because they don't sell. What will happen when Nook and Kindle take over the world? The brick and mortar stores are shrinking, and will soon be shrivelled. Such are the observations of an occasional B&N patron. And, as always, I set off the alarm as I left, even though I bought nothing and carried nothing out of the store I didn't bring in except the vente. I warned the cashier that I always set it off, so was not arrested for shoplifting.

Oh, the third book that caught my eye? It was in the remainders section, on a lower shelf, a neat stack of perhaps twelve copies. When I saw it, I almost whipped out my cell phone and called good friend Gary in Rhode Island. The book was The Screaming Skull, & other Classic Horror Stories. The Screaming Skull? Who knew a college freshman prank, quite minor at that, in which no animals were hurt, no feelings were hurt, no one was bullied, no hate speech was uttered (except maybe by the subject of the prank) would find its way onto a remainders bookshelf in B&N in Rogers Arkansas in 2011? Maybe I should have invested the $7.95 plus tax just to say I had it. Gary, check it out at a B&N where you're at.

New Books or Old Books

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this. Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar" 1837

Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. C.S. Lewis, Introduction to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius, 1944

So, two eminent scholars seem to disagree! Why am I not surprised. Emerson says read the modern books. The generation right before you, after they observed the world and digested it, shared the knowledge they had for my generation. C.S. Lewis says not so; read first the old books, then if you have time and inclination read the modern as well.

This came up because, at my last foraging in a thrift store, I found the Athanasius book. I might not have bothered with it except I have an interest in the early Christian writings, and thought this slim paperback would be a welcome addition to my reference library. Also, in 2005 I first read a seminary paper by my son-in-law on Athanasius' de Incarnatione Verbi Dei. I didn't understand it, put it down, picked it up again almost exactly a year later, didn't understand it, put it down again, etc., until finally I was able to glean enough from it to understand it (I think) the discussion and write a review. When I saw the book I thought, "I've read about this writing of Athanasius; now I have the chance to read it in modern translation."

When I got it home I read the Introduction. C.S. Lewis' words stood in stark contract to what I remembered reading in Emerson. "The American Scholar" is actually the only essay of RWE's I've gotten all the way through. Others I've picked up and put down, but that one I really liked. Emerson's words had seemed true to me. That's why every American generation writes another biography or two of George Washington, and why the shelves of our local libraries are constantly rotating books, selling off those more than fifty years old and replacing them with newer distillations of the same subject.

Lewis has more to say about this than does Emerson. He goes on to discuss the importance of reading the original sources. Commentaries on Plato are more confusing than Plato, he writes. Just read Plato. He's not so hard to understand in modern translation. Since that is exactly what I am attempting to do with the Athanasius book, I could understand Lewis' remarks. And, as a writer I'd better figure out how to write materials for the next generation while at the same time directing them to the old books.

We'll see how this goes. I've read about fifteen of the 95 pages of Athanasius, and sort of understand what he's saying. I haven't gotten to the meat of his argument yet. Of course, when he began by saying, "In our former book", I had to divert to various on-line sources to see what that book was and what it is all about. That led me to some letters he wrote. That led me to some biographical materials, and even a compilation of his works. The tentacles of research are at work.

It is taking me much concentration to read De Inarnatione. I can't do it while also watching television, or even while that noise is on in the house. I can't read it if I'm also thinking of articles to write or blog posts to post or bills to pay or work issues the morning will bring. So I may not finish it quickly, may even put it aside and go to some other book in my reading pile. We shall see. The experiment is on.

Working Hard at Doing Nothing

I should go back and review the post I wrote on Friday, about looking forward to a holiday that was both productive and restful. I wonder exactly what I put down for the productive part. Whatever it was, I'm sure I didn't accomplish it.

On Friday afternoon neighbors offered us their spare tickets to the Saturday afternoon Northwest Arkansas Naturals game. They are the AA farm club of the Kansas City Royals. The stadium is only 30 miles from our house, but we haven't gone to a game in the few years they've been in the area. Part of that is busyness; part is hoarding of restricted recreational dollars; part is simply I've fallen out of love with baseball. That was the game of my early youth, till I played and became a fan of football. Then baseball progressively fell out of my favor as football's star rose. The 1993-94 major league strike ended baseball for me, though I was just looking for an excuse. The later NFL strike didn't impact my love of that game.

Don't get me wrong; baseball is a great game. It's just that football is a much better game for me, and so it gets my limited sports watching hours. But we decided that the diversion would be good, so we went. We had four tickets but had trouble finding anyone to go with us. Finally found one person. We both enjoyed the game. Fortunately our seats were just in the shade the whole game and we didn't have to fight the sun. The Naturals lost to the Tulsa Drillers, mainly because of a stupid handling between the pitcher and first baseman of a foul ball. It would have ended the first inning. Instead the Drillers went on to score three unearned runs, and eventually won the game 5-2.

The rest of the weekend was marred by minor physical ailments. Last week I was fighting a mild summer cold. I thought it was pretty much over Friday night, but it came back Sunday. Spent most of that day and Monday just resting to try to knock it out. Also on Monday my rheumatoid arthritis flared up. Well, some of it may be osteo as well, in my wrists. Monday morning it was all I could do to crawl out of bed to my reading chair in the living room or to the sun porch. The only physical exercise I got was a ten minute walk down and up the hill and around the block Monday evening. However, by the end of the day I felt pretty good. Cold symptoms gone; rheumatoid gone; osteo better; energy level up.

I finished The Adams Chronicles on Monday and wrote my book review about it. Also on Sunday-Monday I wrote my next article on contract administration for buildipedia.com and sent it off. And I did research for and started writing my next stock trading article for suite101.com. I checked my reading pile for what I'm supposed to read next and decided I didn't want to read that right now. Rather than re-shuffle the pile, and not feeling like tackling the magazines and newsletters that are piling up again, I decided to try reading Athanasius' The Incarnation of the Word of God—in English of course. I got through a couple of chapters of it and kind of understand it. I'll have to finish it when my powers of concentration are at their greatest and distractions at their least; and not necessarily in consecutive sittings.

Tonight I hope to finish and post that Suite 101 article, and maybe get through a couple of mags and/or newsletters. And I'll take another look at my reading pile and see what looks good next.

Oh for a Holiday Weekend

Labor Day weekend is upon us. My supervisor, the CEO, usually comes around early afternoon and tells us we can leave early, somewhere around 3:00 or 3:30 PM. I usually don't, but might do so this time. While it's a holiday, with one extra day, I have much to accomplish. Here's a sampling.

• We had a strong rainstorm last night, and one of the skylights leaks in our living room. It was a slow drip, but it followed the ceiling slope to the wall and then down the wall. We protected the carpet right away, but now I have to deal with this. Water in the living room, water in the basement. What's a homeowner to do?
• Speaking of water in the basement, we are in a testing phase right now. Had the plumber out yesterday. He couldn't find any water, but wants us to watch it for a while before we do the ceiling re-installation and then the carpet installation. Another week at least with The Dungeon torn up.
• Speaking of The Dungeon, I'm going to at least clean up the mess in it this weekend. We put down plastic sheets to catch the sheetrock and dust, but the sheets were so old that they kind of crumbled. Who knew? So I'll get them out and vacuum up all the stuff that fell through the sheet cuts.
• Speaking of cuts, it would be nice if I could finish taking out that leaning tree this weekend. The cut I made through the large branch that is preventing the tree from falling is mostly through the branch, but it closed up under the weight and I've got to start a cut from the other side. Weather is supposed to be good this weekend for working outside.
• Speaking of working outside, I'll have a little grass to weed-eat, and maybe I'll take out those two bushes Lynda wants taken out. That will take an hour. And a few other bushes need trimming. Another hour.
• Otherwise, I have two Buildipedia articles under contract that I need to finish or at least work on. I have three others under contract that I should start on. And it would be nice to write two for Suite101. Ideas are on my mind; I need to help them find an outlet.
• Otherwise, I plan on reading, reading, reading. 150 or more pages in the book I'm working on, three or four newsletters, one Geographic, and one Poets and Writers.
• And last, it would be nice to begin work on the next Bible study that's on my mind. Actually, I started it last Sunday, but quickly saw it was a lot more work than I had envisioned, and so laid it aside.

That sounds like enough. I'll perhaps make a couple of posts to this blog, get a few walks in, play Scrabble with Lynda, and enjoy the weather on the deck.

Reading Magazines

Last night, about 9:45 PM, I pulled a book off the reading pile and began reading, mug of coffee at the ready. I'm sure I'll give a report on it, 510 pages from now. For the last three weeks or so I've been concentrating on reading magazines. On the end table between Lynda's and my reading chairs, we each have a stack. Actually I have two. One is a stack of books; the other a stack of magazines and newsletters. I tackle each as the spirit moves me. Actually the stack of books is not my reading pile. It is the current book I'm reading, plus a Bible or two, and maybe a study book. My reading "pile" is actually out of sight, on a bookshelf in my closet.

The magazine pile is quite varied. I only subscribe to one magazine, Poets and Writers, and that's a one-year experiment. I'll see in February if I'll renew it. But we get lots of other mags or newsletters. There's alumni magazines from the University of Rhode Island, the University of Missouri, the UoM College of Engineering, and I think Lynda may get something from the University of Kansas. We get a magazine twice a year from our timeshare organization, every month from our rural electric cooperative, and one a month from AAA. They pile up.

Then add to that the newsletters: Prison Fellowship, New Fields Ministries, our water utility, Focus on the Family, the Bella Vista POA, the non-official Bella Vista newsletter (almost a mag), and a couple more. These pile up as well. Lynda gets a couple every month from various stock trading organizations, though those may be more "buy our service" type of ads rather than true newsletters. I also classify as "magazines" things such as annual reports from insurance companies and stocks. We get a few of those.

Then add the mags we pick up at thrift stores, yard sales, or the recycling place. That one is amazing. When the magazine box is full, you have your pick of hundreds within reach. Conversely, when they've just emptied the box, you can't reach any. We normally come away from there with just about the same number that we drop off. The National Geographic I've read recently came from there—though we've got years of the Geographic on shelves downstairs, waiting for me to get to them.

I try to read them all. Why? I feel like I'm probably missing something if I don't read them. They come to me to impart knowledge, maybe even wisdom on occasion. How can I simply trash them? Certainly what I pay for I'm going to read. Every page. Even the ads. Those that come free I might skim. Oh, wait, most of those I actually pay for. The cost is just hidden in the utility rate or the overhead of the organization. The ministry newsletters are always interesting. New Fields is an organization of Russian-Americans who provide a wide range of Christian ministries in the countries of the former Soviet Union. They do a great work, including much humanitarian work.

So for the last three weeks, when reading time materialized, rather than go to my reading pile I grabbed something off the mag pile. As of Monday night the mag pile was left with only two things it in. One was something from Blue Cross Blue Shield that I just didn't feel like reading. The other was the timeshare org mag, and that is almost as much sales pitch. So I felt caught up and grabbed the book from the reading pile. While it's a rather large book, it will feel good to get back into that kind of reading. At ten pages a night and a few more on the weekend, I should finish this around the end of September or early October. By then another ten to fifteen magazines should have piled up.

Reading, Writing, and...Demolition

After a busy weekend last weekend, painting the walls in the family room and stripping wallpaper in the downstairs bathroom, I took it easy on the physical labor this past week. Did some light work in that bathroom, removing bits of paper we'd missed. Put some pictures back on the walls, and restored some other things in the family room. But I didn't undertake anything major.

During the week we had the air conditioner man out to look and see if he could see what is causing the staining on the ceiling in our computer room and in the guest bedroom next to it. He said he couldn't see anything with the limited view he had, and that we would need to tear out some of the fixed ceiling to tell anything. The restoration people said their meters detected wetness in the ceiling. Insurance wouldn't cover what caused the problem, but after we fixed the problem they would restore everything, including ceiling that we had to tear out to find the problem.

So yesterday, after washing windows, screens, and window sills in the computer room, I began tearing out ceiling. The first piece comes out with the most difficulty, of course, as you pierce that nice finish and use the hole to begin the tear out. I started where the stain looked worst, and the first piece felt a little wet to me. But it was cold, being right near an AC duct, so maybe I was feeling the cold and thought it was wet.

I kept at it, removing enough so I could see what was up there. It's a spaghetti mix of water pipe, AC duct, drain lines, and electric and telephone. All the ceiling board seemed dry, though staining on the back side sort of mimicked the stains visible below, except more extensive. Looking through the joists, into the ceiling above the bedroom, I could see that the hot and cold to the washing machine was right above the stains. But nothing looked wet.

So maybe the water came from two problems. A year (or maybe more) ago we had to replace the garbage disposal, a hole having been worn into the side of it. We figured this was the cause of the staining, as the kitchen if right above that part of the computer room (The Dungeon, as I fondly call it). But the staining in the bedroom showed up much later. Maybe it's a leak associated with the washer. Or, the main house drainage line for the upstairs is right in that area too. Maybe it's something to do with that.

It appears that we will have to run some appliances and watch and see if the area above the stains looks wet. That means everything will be torn up for a while, since we won't have the new carpet put down (as a result of the hot water heater leaking) until we have the ceiling fixed, which won't be till we find the leak.

In the meanwhile, I've got lots of reading done, not in a book, but in accumulated magazines. I finished the latest edition of Poets and Writers today, finished an old (2008) National Geographic yesterday, and got some good information about a sci fi subject I was thinking of. Have about finished reading the latest Quadangles, the URI alumni mag. And it seems that I read something else earlier in the week. Oh, I've read some in an investment/trading book, and have brainstormed a series of articles for Suite101.com on the subject. I hope to write one tonight.

So all in all a productive time. I'm fairly well caught up on mags, so will go back to my reading pile and see what book is next.

Logs Loosened, Logs Added, the Jam is Still

Well, the reference book about labyrinth weirs I've been waiting for arrived today, just a half-hour before the third conference call in four days about the problem. A quick review of the most critical chapter in the book confirms that our weir is under-designed, and won't pass the flow intended. At the conference call, everyone seemed pleased with the progress. But tomorrow I will have to tackle the book in earnest, and work on some solutions.

The big negative for the day was my Centerton Little Osage Creek flood study. As I reported Monday I figured out the mistake in the printing and got the reports printed correctly. That was good. Unfortunately, when I checked the spread of the flood in the model it did not match what we show on the mapping. That's bad. That means I've got to figure out if the model is wrong, or if the mapping is wrong. But I'm supposed to have the exact same topography in the model as is on the maps. So how the heck can the spread of the flood be 50 percent different? More logs added to the pile.

The church parking lot continues to progress nicely. Of course, I'm getting queries about it from all quarters, along with some advice. Still, it's not bad. I'll have to go to the site early tomorrow (more time away from my job) and make a couple of decisions. But either tomorrow or Friday we should have asphalt down, if the rain is not too bad.

Writing goes well. I continue to read in Poets and Writers, finally getting past the features into the regular columns, several of which include advice for writers. I'll get through at least one of those tonight. My actual writing has been confined to passage notes for the Harmony of the gospels. I've written seven sets of passage notes since Sunday. I'll get two more done tonight, then may pull off for a while and work on my next Life Group lesson series.

I'm back in a routine, getting stuff done. I'm not writing creatively, nor reading for pleasure, but it's still a routine, still a good groove.

Book Addiction

Last night we moved books. First we took them out of the bookcases. Then we moved the bookcases. Then we moved other bookcases into the spots where the first bookcases were. Then we put the books back on the shelves.

Well, the whole process is not yet done. We did get all the bookcases in their new places. One short one was replaced with a tall one next to another tall one, except those two didn't match, and one of them (the one already in place) matched two or three on the other side of the room, and another bookcase in a semi-used state in a spare bedroom matched the tall one replacing the short one. Are you with me so far?

First, the short one went on a wall where there was no bookcase, under the high school graduation pictures of the kids. The same books went back in that one in the new location. Then I took the encyclopedias off their shelf and set that bookshelf to the side, for two other shelves had to be moved four inches first to increase some space for the encyclopedias. The tall one being moved to its two (or three) matching brothers, where the encyclopedias had been, went next, but those books were not necessarily going back on to it, so they had to stay in piles for a while. That all happened Monday evening, along with vacuuming vacated places and spraying for bugs.

Then yesterday evening I moved the unused one from the garage to where the short one had been, went to writers guild, came back from writers guild when no one else showed, moved (with Lynda's help) the other matching tall one. We then unloaded two other tall ones and moved them four inches. Except that proved to be a little too much and so we moved them back one inch. Then the encyclopedia case went in its new home, right by the door into the Dungeon (as we fondly call our walk-out basement where all this was taking place).

Then the slow process of moving books began in earnest. Christian fiction, alphabetical by other first, then Biblical fiction also alpha by author, then secular fiction alpha by author and collating two groups, then non-fiction (Christian and secular mixed), except how to organize the non-fiction? Alpha by author wouldn't work. It has to be topical. I worked on that some, until it was after 10:00 PM and time to wind down for the evening. The few remaining piles on the floor, and whatever the final look of the non-fiction will be, can wait for tomorrow.

All of which says: I have an addiction to books. It's very difficult to pass any up at a sale. At least, to pass up any I'm truly interested in. The list of books I blogged about a couple of days ago had all come from used book sales over a month's time. That's too many books to be adding to an already over-stuffed collection. So as of now I am swearing off used book stores, thrift stores, garage sales, and even new book stores. The library? I'll still go there, but only at times when that little used book store in the entryway is closed.

Now I have to read them, all 4,000 of them (my best estimate). It might take a while, especially with finding a couple of articles in every book. More on that tomorrow--if I'm not too busy shelving books.

New Book Accumulations

I almost wrote book "acquisitions" in the title, but that would be misleading. The term acquisition regarding books in the publishing industry normally refers to a publisher acquiring a new book from an author, i.e. making an offer for publishing a book and having that author accepted.

Nothing like that going on in this writers life. But I continue to accumulate books to go on already filled bookshelves in our house. I quite buying used books for a while, or bought them at a very slow pace. For a while I didn't even go to places where used books were being sold, as my powers of resistance are fairly low were book buying is concerned.

Over the last month I picked up the following books.

• The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 1
• A Manual For Writers
• Jews, God, and History
• Handbook of the Pentateuch
• The Adams Chronicles
• the search for JFK
• War Letters (from American wars)
• Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain
• Mart Twain: Letters From The Earth
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs
• Great Voices of the Reformation
• Assumed Identity, by David Morrell
• The Haldeman Diaries

I'm not quite sure yet how I will work these into my reading pile. I'm not quite half-way through the reading pile I established last August, and will probably go a book or two into the second half before I make any changes. I bought the two Mark Twain books because I enjoyed his Letters from Hawaii so much, and in truth I've read little by Twain except his major books for children (Tom, and Huck). I have enjoyed the two David Morrell novels I've read, so couldn't resist buying a third.

A Manual For Writers is more of a reference book, sort of a poor man's Chicago Manual of Style. I've already used it for reference a couple of times. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha book is probably nothing more than an academic affectation for me. I read about 25 pages in it over the weekend and found it enjoyable, but I'm not sure I got much out of it. I'm not going to read any more at this time. Well, maybe I'll just finish the introductory material of 1 Enoch. But then I'd have to read at least five or ten chapters of 1 Enoch. But I can't do that and write articles for Suite101.com and track freelance queries and research and send out more and start reading Steinbeck.

What's a writer to do?

Book Review: Team of Rivals

On Monday I finished reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, 2005 Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82490-6, a non-fiction book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book totals 754 pages, not including extensive notes, bibliography, and index. As I mentioned in a previous post, I expected this to be a two month read, or seven weeks if I could find more time to read on weekends. Well, I completed it in five weeks and two days.

The reason for my better progress? The combination of a well-organized book, easy reading that was at the same time scholarly, and an interesting subject. I found I could ready twenty pages a day without any trouble. On weekend days I did thirty to forty. I wouldn't say the book was a page turner; few history books are. But it treated the subject matter in such a way that it was perfect for me.

The book begins on a day in May 1860 when the Republican convention in Chicago was to select their candidate for the presidency. The four main candidates--Seward, Chase, Bates, and Lincoln--were in their respective home towns, waiting on the outcome. In those days candidates never attended or even addressed their convention. The opening chapter tells something of how the four men pursued the nomination. Then chapters 2 and 3 go into their lives leading up to that point, and chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 cover the last decade or so leading up to the convention. It isn't until chapter 8 that we return to Chicago and see how Lincoln's team bested his rivals. Thus the book is in a D-A-B-C-E order.

Beginning with chapter 8 the book runs in chronological order, covering the Lincoln presidency in considerable detail. As could be expected from the title, the primary subject of the book is how Lincoln put his chief political rivals on his cabinet, and then how it was his personality and leadership style that molded them into a team that carried out what he wanted to do with the nation. Lincoln's style was one of quiet perseverance and charm. When faced with a disagreement with any of his cabinet, he resolutely forbore the arguments in favor of the opposing position, then with charm and quiet persuasion was able to bring the colleague around, or on occasion slightly alter his own position based on the logic of the other guy's.

This was no Harry Truman, who would tell his cabinet, "Here's what I'm going to do. Talk me out of it if you can." They never could. Nor was this a Teddy Roosevelt, speaking softly but carrying a big stick. Lincoln carried no stick at all, according to Kearns. He entered the presidency as a relative unknown, painted by the Democrats as a rail-splitter. In fact, a few months into his first term someone in power said, "We have voted for a rail-splitter, and that's what we got."

As the opening battles in the Civil War went against the Union, everyone questioned Lincoln's forbearance with non-performing generals. The radical side of his cabinet questioned his toleration of the conservatives, and the conservatives did the same concerning the liberals/radicals. The abolitionists declared Lincoln a friend of slavery, and Southern sympathizers declared him an abolitionist. Somehow, through his incredible forbearance and his refusal to become flustered or angry, Lincoln prevailed and the Union was saved.

Kearns does a masterful job at weaving this story. She tells how Lincoln used diversions to reduce his stress level and allow him to keep focused, diversions such as the theatre, the opera, carriage rides, weekends away from the White House, and simple evenings spent with friends where he could spin his yarns. He became good friends with his chief rival, William Seward (Secretary of State), and the two spent much time together not necessarily discussing government business.

It was not so with Salmon Chase (Secretary of the Treasury). Kearns describes how Chase constantly baited Lincoln, either purposely or just as a consequence of planning to unseat Lincoln in 1864. Lincoln stood for much abuse from Chase, refusing three times to accept his resignation. When he finally did accept it (to Chase's surprise), the timing was perfect and the rest of the cabinet, the Congress, and the nation understood it was for the best.

Tomorrow I'll cover a few more items, and summarize the review. For now I'll say this read is well worth the cost of the book and the hours you will dedicate to it. Don't take a chance to pass this up.

Progress as Promised: a shameless commercial plug

I had intended tonight to post the first part of a two-part review of Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Yes, I finished it last night, well ahead of the schedule I thought I could achieve. The book is long, and deserves a thorough review. On my noon hour, after walking 1.33 miles, I did an outline of my review. Of course, I left the outline on my desk when I left the office.

So tonight I'll post something else. I'm making progress on a number of fronts.

• Health: After a few weeks of barely watching what I ate (while continuing a good level of exercise), this is shaping up to be a good week. For the last two days I've barely snacked, and have upped my exercise level slightly. Despite 90+ temperatures at noon, I walked 12 laps each day (a mile and a third).
• Flood study: At the end of the workday, I had pretty much completed the last analysis of the flood study that has been a sword dangling over my head for two years. I still have to get the tech going on the mapping (promised for tomorrow), and must write a technical report (already started) and fill out the FEMA forms (one day's work). The end is in sight.
• Reading: As stated, I got more reading done than anticipated over the last month. Perhaps I'm reading more efficiently, because I had great comprehension as I read; I didn't skim any of it.
• Freelancing: Last night I spent time preparing a query for another article in Internet Genealogy. No word on it yet.
• Suite 101.com: Here's the shameless plug: I have three articles up on Suite 101: two on flood plain issues, and one an overview of Robert Frost's "Into My Own", one of his early poems. These three articles don't have many page views yet and no revenue earned, but that will come in time. What business, you ask, does a civil engineer have reviewing a Frost poem? You'll have to go to my profile page at Suite 101 and click on the article.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll begin the book review. Right now, I'm exiting the Dungeon for the upper levels, from the coolness of the basement to the heat of the street level, and will spend a little time reading. The next two books on my reading pile are A Harmony of the Gospels (I forget the author) and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I've never read that, but it's rather long and I'm not sure I want to read a long book right now. So, for the few minutes of reading tonight, I'll get back into my son's philosophy paper "The New Problem of Akratic Action". This forms a chapter in his dissertation, and is not really a difficult read. At least I think I understood the first five pages.

A Lot To Chew

I'm currently reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I picked this up in hardback very cheap from somewhere. It is a loooooonnnngggg book, over 900 pages. Last August I put this at this point in my reading pile, after Burnt Sienna by David Morrell, wanting to alternate between non-fiction and fiction. As I built my pile from books purchased in the first half of 2008, I didn't worry about every other book being fiction, non-fiction, fiction, etc., just so long as I was getting a mixture between them. I also wanted to spread out books on history, or biography, by Christian writers and secular writers, on writing helps and other things.

So Team of Rivals came up next. I love history. I love Lincoln. I love things that appear as if they will be scholarly. This is a perfect book for me, and following the easy read I just finished, and the easy one before that, it is time to read something a little harder. But over 900 pages? Of fairly small text, with few illustrations and not a whole lot of white space?

I flipped through the book on Saturday and Sunday, and read the Introduction. It turns out much of the end of the book is index and notes. In fact, the epilogue of the book ends at page 754. So I figured twelve pages a day average will make this a two-month read. And, if I can find a bit more time on the weekends, perhaps a mere seven weeks.

This is complicated by my coming up on a busy time at work, some additional travel to see the kids or for them to come and see us, and the need to spend some more time on things around the house. So I may be optimistic on averaging twelve pages a day.

In fact, after three days of reading I know I'm optimistic. I'm at page 34, but the actual text started on page 5. The subject matter is such that I'll have to have complete quiet; I won't be able to read it while Lynda has the television on, at least not read it for true comprehension. And I don't see any point in reading for half comprehension.

So I eat this elephant one bite at a time. I may find I have to put it aside for a while, read something simpler, then come back to it. Next in the pile is a harmony of the gospels, which might aid in my current writing. After that is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Both of those promise to be easier reading, so I may read them in parallel with Team of Rivals and see how that goes. Perhaps all three by the end of the summer.

4:20 PM, Friday Afternoon

This has been a full and busy day.

Work wise, I completed the base work on the Little Osage Creek Flood Study. That is, I:

- entered new rainfall data into the hydrology model for the 10-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year rainfall events, and re-ran the run-off calculations. Since I hadn't run the 500-year before, I had to make adjustments in the overflow structures of eleven detention ponds. By noon, I had a successful run-off model.
- entered the new run-off values into the hydraulics model and re-ran the flood calculations. This was successful at about 3:50 PM. That doesn't mean I'm quite done with this. I still need to run two phases of ditch improvements and one major future condition, but the hard work is done. Oh, and I still need to write the report, fill out the FEMA forms, and submit it. But with the work today, I consider the hard part done.

I also helped a man in the office with construction site problems.

Personal work wise, I:

- Proofread my article for Internet Genealogy; found a few changes to make; typed the changes; printed the article; proof-read it (in one uninterrupted sitting); found a few more changes to make; typed them; proof-read it and saw it was where I wanted it to be; and e-mailed it to the editor. The article still is not quite finished, because...
- I once again called the professor I wanted to interview for the article, and once again had to leave a message. I've found a work-around in case I can't get a hold of him.
- Mailed my mother-in-law's income taxes. "So late?" you ask. Yes. She doesn't owe anything, they don't owe her anything, she probably doesn't even need to file at her income level, so yes, quite late, but it's done for this year.
- Walked a mile on the noon hour.

I approach the end of a day of great accomplishment that made the whole week worthwhile, and somewhat made up for my inefficiencies of the last two weeks, and the two weeks before vacation. I have only 22 pages to go on my reading book, which I will finish tonight and write my review over the weekend. Next in the reading pile is Team Of Rivals, which I am looking forward to. I'm fairly close to finishing the edits on the John Cheney file that I've been plodding through a little each night for the last week and a half. I'll surely have them done by Sunday afternoon, after which I'll print and file it, file accumulated genealogy papers and clean up my mess in the Dungeon. Hopefully I'll put genealogy behind me for a while and figure out what to write next. Probably it will be one or two appendixes on the Harmony of the Gospels. Possibly it will be a chapter or two of In Front of 50000 Screaming People. I'll also consider working on queries for other articles, or fleshing out proposals for the Bible studies I've been working on recently.

Too many choices; too little time.

The Joys of the Day

This morning, before work, after reading for a few enjoyable minutes in John Wesley's letters, I had some additional time to do some genealogy work. So I went to the digital library of Brigham Young University (which I discovered only yesterday) and did some more experimentation on how to use the site. I searched for John Cheney, Lynda's immigrant ancestor on her paternal line, going back to Newbury Massachusetts in 1636 and in Lawford and Mistley, Essexshire, England before that. The search in the "family history collection" returned 33 hits, which I began going through. Some I recognized. Oh, and I admit to taking some work time on this, not starting my business day right at straight up 8 AM. I shall have to make up some time.

One of the hits was a 100 page (approx.) typed manuscript dealing with Cheney families in England. It turned out it was mainly concerned with John Cheney's English origins. While it did not have the full source citations it needs to have to be fully credible, it's about the best document on the subject I've seen, and worthy of further study. So genealogy was a joy today.

Work was pretty good too. I spent two hours (in two different sessions) with a department head in our office who has a very difficult construction project. I've spent much time with him already on this project, but he had two new issues come up that he wanted to get my input on. Such a discussion is good, and enjoyable. I think we worked out the best possible response for him to make. Then it was off to Centerton to deal with the flood study that has plagued me for so long, and resolving one nagging question on the site topography. I've dreaded getting back on it, but cannot wait any longer. I finished writing a difficult specification today (another joy), and so I have non-distracted time I can put into this project and get it done. That would be a joy. Oh, wait, I have another one for the City I'll have to do when I finish this one. At least it is a much simpler flood study. I did the complicated one first.

I left work more or less on time (I'll make up my time another day) and went to the Bentonville library. Time in a library is always a joy. To be around thousands of books and a hundred different magazines, people studying, librarians working--that's where I love to be. The hour passed all too quickly, but I found a magazine I might be able to pitch an article to.

Church was enjoyable, a Bible study in Daniel chapter 8.

Now here at home, I read twenty pages in the book I'm working on. Less than 60 pages to go, and it has been an enjoyable read. Now I'm in the Dungeon, on the computer. I worked 30 minutes on the current genealogy project, then this.

How much much joy can a day contain? If it weren't for having robbed my employer of some time. That was the only blot on the day. Well, buying some chips too. But all in all, I wish all my days were like this.

Trying to Re-focus

The problem with a vacation is it throws you off your rhythm. When you get back, you have to re-establish your habits, patterns, and practices in all areas of life. At work this week, I've been so un-focused on what I need to get done that, instead of CEI paying me, they should charge me for taking up space. Before vacation, I was having a difficult time concentrating at work. I think my desire to complete my work is higher, so from the aspect of rest and relaxation the vacation was a success. Now I just need to work on focusing on what I need to do.

As far as writing and things I need to do around the house, same thing. I have worked very little on my article, very little on such mundane things as paying the bills, working on my budget planning and recording, or household chores. Hopefully I'll be back to normal on those soon.

The last two nights I managed to get my reading re-focused. The next book in my reading pile was Burnt Sienna, a novel by David Morrell. I had trouble starting it, however, allowing myself to be distracted by the two books of letters I recently purchased (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis). But Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I spend time in Burt Sienna. I'm not 52 pages into this 379 page book. It's an easy read, and is holding my interest well.

However, I have found it easy to focus on genealogy--sort of. I'm working on my Events in the Life of John Cheney, who is my wife's immigrant ancestor to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. I have that document quite well along, up to nine pages. My library research in Milford and Fort Wayne turned up some new information about him, however, so I'm adding those events. At the same time, I'm gong through each of over 100 citations and footnotes to correct errors in the way I first entered them. It is quite tedious, with much re-typing needed. My focus hasn't been perfect, however, and I still get much distracted from the task at hand.

All of which leads me to question the effectiveness of vacations for all people. For me, while the rest and relaxation are good, the loss of routine is bad. All in all, I'd rather be in my routines than off resting.

Inch by Inch

That's advice you always here:
"Mile by mile it's a trial.
Yard by yard it's hard.
Inch by inch it's a cinch."

I've often felt that the person giving such advice was running a two-mile race, not a marathon. Yet, I can see some truth in this in terms of my own life and the improvements I'd like to make in character and conduct, as well as the goals I have set for myself.

Take my weight, for example. Slowly over the course of about three years, I have lost 50 pounds. That was as of my scales moment Friday. Of course, that does no more than put me back to where I was on a day in June 2003. I've still got 54 pounds to lose to make it to the top end of my ideal weight range. So I have many more inches to go in this.

Take the Harmony of the Gospels I've been working on since, when was it, 2004? This is a project that for a long time I worked at between other projects. It started as a Bible study for myself, to use in teaching an adult Sunday School class and to satisfy my own curiosity about something. Yet, since then it has grown into a Bible study I am working on to be of publishable quality. Friday night I finished the second round of proof-reading. I have only one more step to go before I begin typing these edits and putting it in a format to share with my pastor. Only a couple of yards to go, inch by inch.

Take the book I'm reading, The Powers That Be by David Halberstam. I began this sometime before Christmas. A 736 page tome, I'm down to twenty-five pages to go, and likely will finish it tonight. Perhaps I was stupid for persevering through the whole thing rather than setting it aside after a hundred pages, when I realized that, while it was good, the reading was going to be tedious and I would be a couple of months getting through it. Oh well, persevere I did, and have only a few inches to go.

Take trying to be published. This is certainly an inch by inch proposition, as at this time I'm not prepared to self-publish. The problem is I don't know how long the journey still is, or even if there is a final destination. Possibly the inches are taking me along a race track with no finish line, and I will never be published. Or perhaps it is only an inch or two ahead. Either way, in the last couple of weeks I managed to move a couple of inches forward, mainly in my realization of where my writing is relative to publishing standards, and in seeing the next two or three inches along the way.

Other things in my life have also shown inched progress. And I'm thankful for that.