String Notes

My local public library is having a celebration of their 50th birthday with a year’s worth of activities. They’ve started a new one for adults: if you read 50 books by sometime in December, you’ll get a free library book bag. I looked at that and laughed – the contest starts now, but you can’t turn in the form until December. I’d have 50 books in no time, and then have to keep track of the form for months.

But then I started wondering, how many books do I actually read? “Lots”, after all, is not really a quantitative term. So I’m going to start keeping a list. Feel free to ignore the “booklist” posts – there’s unlikely to be much string. String books aplenty, though.

To start, books I’ve finished in the past couple weeks (everything I could think of since about July 1, except I think I’m missing some):

• Sasha Issenberg: The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy– nonfiction, globalization in food acquisition and processing. Sushi started out as a way to preserve fish, and has become a status symbol for food transport and safety.
• Michael Kurland: The Great Game and The Empress of India – Sherlock Holmes is an obsessive drug addict, and poor put-upon Professor Moriarty just wants everyone to leave him alone to study astronomy. He isn’t so lucky with that, though.
• Karin Slaughter: Blindsighted and Kisscut – new-to-me thriller author. Very graphic and violent, not what I usually expect from a female author, but balanced with more characterization and strong female characters.
• Mercedes Lackey: Sanctuary – summer popcorn fantasy fluff with dragons. Third in a series. Best moment (paraphrase): “Well, my ten dragon riders are going to be hard-put to accomplish this all tonight. But since dragons don’t have some mystical power that lets them travel in time, I guess we’d better get to work.” Heh.
• Michael Wilcox: Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green – recommended to me in a blog comment by Debbie. Very interesting, full review to follow eventually.
• Nancy Bush: Folk Knitting in Estonia: A Garland of Symbolism, Tradition and Technique – nice background on Estonian history and culture and gorgeous patterns. Gonna have to purchase this one.

Browsing – books that I won’t read cover-to-cover, but am still involved with:

• June Hiatt: The Principles of Knitting – to be reprinted! Buy it when it comes out!
• Barbara Walker: A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns – no commentary needed, right?

In progress:

• Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel’s Chosen – barely started, got distracted by other books. Yes, I’m a cheater!
• Kate Elliot: In the Ruins – loved the first 5 in the Crown of Stars series, waited impatiently for the next ones (seven in all) and now can’t get into it. She gets extra bonus points from me for writing like someone who has actually baked bread, woven cloth, etc.
• Matthew Pearl: The Dante Club (as an audiobook) – Fun so far. This is my current spinning and knitting entertainment (when Prairie Home Companion isn’t on).
• Phil Hellmuth: Play Poker Like the Pros – A subject I know nothing about. I try to pick up a book on an unfamiliar topic or by an unfamiliar author frequently. (I love public libraries!)
• Lawrence Goldstone: The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World – good book on Bacon, though I think the basic premise is wrong (Roger Bacon didn’t write the Voynich Manuscript.
• Robert MacArthur: Geographical Ecology – this is probably more a browsing book, since I will most likely only read the parts relevant to the paper I’m writing.
• Anne Hecht: The Art of the Loom: Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Across the World – nice overview of major world weaving traditions, with good photos and enough information on spinning and weaving techniques that an experienced weaver could more-or-less duplicate the methods.

So that’s 8 I finished, and 7 more that I’m reading, plus 4 or 5 sitting on my shelf waiting for me. 50? Hah!

I would like to write more thorough reviews for the textile books on the list. Hopefully I get to that before I forget what they said! Morgan has been helping me prepare a review for Principles of Knitting.

Yes, gratuitous cat pictures for anyone who actually read the whole post!