Thinking About My Dad on Father's Day 2017

It's been seven Father's Days without you, Dad. The last few years, I've been reading your books which means that in a way you are with me quite often and you are still teaching me things (economics, foreign policy, anthropology, philosophy, and physics) and even having fun with me (Cat's Cradle, The Lathe of Heaven, Anathem!). I've branched out a bit too and bought books published by some of your favorite authors after you died.

It's hard that you don't know my children- you would have loved them so much. Your namesake James even plays chess and he's not all that interested in sports. Miranda is just like all your favorite girls were, loud-mouthed and bossy. I'll do my best to try to get them to know you by following your example as a parent: playing with them, answering their questions thoughtfully, and eventually, maybe they'll read your books too. I love you as much as ever and I miss you.

Dad reading in my apartment in Brooklyn in 2010

Dad's Books:
Title- Author- Date Published- Date read

• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed- Diamond, Jared - 2004 - Jun 17, 2017 
• The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics - Susskind, Leonard - 2008 - May 29, 2017
• Being Peace (Being Peace, #1) - Nhất Hạnh, Thích - 1987 - May 23, 2017
• The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation - Nhất Hạnh, Thích - 1975 - May 16, 2017
• Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy - Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2010 - May 15, 2017 
• Moonraker (James Bond, #3) Fleming, Ian Jan 01, 1955 May 02, 2017 
• The Soft Machine (The Nova Trilogy #1) Burroughs, William S. 1961 Apr 29, 2017 
• Cat's Cradle Vonnegut Jr., Kurt 1963 Apr 24, 2017 
• The Celestine Prophecy (Celestine Prophecy, #1) Redfield, James 1993 Apr 22, 2017 
• Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West Pagden, Anthony - 2008 Apr 21, 2017
• Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy - Chomsky, Noam - Feb 10, 2007 - Apr 12, 2017 
• The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism - Rand, Ayn 1961 - Apr 04, 2017
• The Beasts of Tarzan (Tarzan, #3) - Burroughs, Edgar Rice 1914 - Mar 21, 2017 
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Pirsig, Robert M. 1974 - Mar 20, 2017 
• Salome - Wilde, Oscar 1891 - Mar 19, 2017 
• Lady Windmere's Fan - Wilde, Oscar 1893 Mar 18, 2017 
• An Ideal Husband Wilde, Oscar Apr 01, 1893 Mar 16, 2017
• Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Coll, Steve 2004 Mar 15, 2017 
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Taleb, Nassim Nicholas * 2007 Mar 05, 2017
• The Big U Stephenson, Neal * 1984 Mar 02, 2017 
• The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde, Oscar 1891 Feb 27, 2017 
• The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are Watts, Alan W. 1966 Feb 26, 2017 
• The Lathe of Heaven Le Guin, Ursula K. 1971 Feb 24, 2017 
• Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA Weiner, Tim * Jan 01, 2007 Feb 20, 2017
• The Voyage Out Woolf, Virginia 1915 Feb 13, 2017
• Heart of a Dog Bulgakov, Mikhail 1925 Feb 11, 2017
• Angels and Insects Byatt, A.S. 1992 Feb 07, 2017 
• The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism Capra, Fritjof Jan 01, 1975 Feb 05, 2017 
• Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2) Fleming, Ian Apr 05, 1954 Feb 04, 2017 
• The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash Morris, Charles R. - 2008 - Feb 02, 2017 
• I and Thou Buber, Martin 1923 Feb 2017 
• Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1) Morgan, Richard K. Feb 28, 2002 Jan 31, 2017 [
• The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Ferguson, Niall Nov 2007 Jan 29, 2017 
• Casino Royale (James Bond, #1) Fleming, Ian 1953 Jan 25, 2017 
• The God Delusion Dawkins, Richard * 2006 Jan 23, 2017 
• Anansi Boys Gaiman, Neil * 2005 Jan 22, 2017 
• De Profundis Wilde, Oscar 1905 Jan 20, 2017 
• When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Lowenstein, Roger Jan 01, 2000 Jan 15, 2017 
• The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism Bacevich, Andrew J. Aug 05, 2008 Jan 09, 2017 
• The Post-American World Zakaria, Fareed Jan 01, 2008 Dec 30, 2016
• Cryptonomicon Stephenson, Neal * May 1999 Dec 20, 2016 
• The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad Zakaria, Fareed Apr 2003 Dec 20, 2016  
• The Broom of the System Wallace, David Foster 1987 Dec 04, 2016 
• Use of Weapons (Culture, #3) Banks, Iain M. 1990 Nov 23, 2016 
• Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance Chomsky, Noam 2003 Nov 11, 2016 
• The Player of Games (Culture, #2) Banks, Iain M. Aug 1988 Nov 10, 2016 
• Stranger in a Strange Land Heinlein, Robert A. Jul 01, 1961 Oct 25, 2016 
• The Dead Lecturer Baraka, Amiri Oct 1964 Oct 24, 2016
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Brown, Dee 1970 Oct 24, 2016
• Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas Feb 28, 1973 Oct 17, 2016 
• I, Robot (Robot #0.1) Asimov, Isaac Dec 02, 1950 Oct 14, 2016 
• The Return of Tarzan (Tarzan, #2) Burroughs, Edgar Rice 1913 Oct 11, 2016 
• Pebble in the Sky (Galactic Empire #3) Asimov, Isaac Jan 01, 1950 Oct 02, 2016 
• Anathem Stephenson, Neal * Sep 09, 2008 Sep 26, 2016 
• Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1) Banks, Iain M. Apr 23, 1987 - Sep 16, 2016
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) Larsson, Stieg Aug 2005 Sep 08, 2016
• The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality Greene, Brian 2003 Sep 06, 2016
• Tarzan of the Apes (Tarzan, #1) Burroughs, Edgar Rice Oct 1912 Aug 29, 2016 
• The Currents of Space (Galactic Empire, #2) Asimov, Isaac 1952 Aug 26, 2016 
• The Stars, Like Dust (Galactic Empire, #1) Asimov, Isaac Jan 01, 1951 Aug 22, 2016 
• I Am America Colbert, Stephen Oct 09, 2007 Aug 21, 2016
• The World Without Us Weisman, Alan Jul 10, 2007 - Aug 17, 2016 
• The Widows of Eastwick (Eastwick #2) Updike, John 2008 Aug 13, 2016 
• Anthem Rand, Ayn May 1938 Aug 11, 2016
• Man's Search for Meaning Frankl, Viktor E. 1946 Jul 11, 2016
• American Gods (American Gods, #1) Gaiman, Neil * Jul 2001 Jun 02, 2016
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1) Adams, Douglas 1979 Apr 27, 2016 
• The Witches of Eastwick (Eastwick #1) Updike, John 1984 Apr 14, 2016 
• Codex Grossman, Lev * Jan 01, 2004 Mar 24, 2016 
• Galaxies Like Grains of Sand Aldiss, Brian W. 1959 Oct 03, 2013 
• Water for Elephants Gruen, Sara * - 2006 - Jun 06, 2010
• Schrödinger's Cat 1: The Universe Next Door Wilson, Robert Anton Nov 01, 1979 Jun 27, 2007
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Diamond, Jared 1997 Jan 2005 
• Civil Disobedience Thoreau, Henry David 1849 Apr 15, 1996 
• Walden Thoreau, Henry David Aug 09, 1854 Apr 26, 1995 
• Have Space Suit—Will Travel Heinlein, Robert A. Sep 01, 1958 Jan 1993

Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - October 2016

On Saturday, I participated in Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon where you read as much as you can for 24 hours. In my time zone I was supposed to start around 8 a.m. and finish Sunday at 8 a.m. Sleeping is optional. My friend Michele came to town though, so I tried to read as much as I could before seeing her, and a little bit the next morning while she was sleeping, but I definitely did not spend 24 hours reading this time. I'm excited to try again in April!

In preparation for the readathon, I pulled the smallest books I could find from my dad's books, and a few other books that I had already started working on. I knew my pile was way too ambitious, but everyone else had big exciting piles so I wanted one too.

Too ambitious for one day.

I ended up reading three small books, mostly while riding on the LIRR to get to and from New York. The Doors of Perception and The Dead Lecturer are my dad's old books, so I made a little dent in my project to read all his books. I also read little bit of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and Stranger in Strange Land (which is a re-read for me).

My three readathon books.

Using KonMari to Reduce Dad's Books 2015

As you may know from earlier posts, I had kept about 26 boxes of my dad's books after he passed away. After 4 years, I had still reduced or read very few of them. I had tried just looking through them, getting a friend to help (hi Ash!), and finally doing one author letter at a time. The last strategy was going a little better... but still really slow.

Enter Kondo. In three days, the books I chose to keep are in three bookshelves, and hundreds of books that I would not have ever read were donated. I was shocked how much clarity I had in the book selection after 4 years of being totally confused. When I look at the bookshelves they spark joy! I want to read the books, and the arrangement reminds me of being at home and visiting my dad.

Suddenly I have clarity on my dad's books! Donate! Donate!

 

Less than half the number I started with, but still, admittedly, a lot.

Okay, we still have a lot of books. We probably always will. But when I look at them they make me happy now in a way they did not before. They don't stress me or make me feel guilty. They make me look forward to pulling the next adventure off the shelf.

Authors Beginning with C

As I explained in a previous post, I'm finally dealing with the hundreds of books I took home when Dad passed away by going through them by author last name. Dad's books by authors beginning with the letter C.... not a lot of stuff I'm super excited about here.

These are the ones I decided to keep- fiction and nonfiction mixed...

This is the "no" pile.

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned fiction*

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned fiction (cont.)


Kevin and Ericka's previously owned non-fiction


My e-books, all free fiction in this case.

Any arguments in favor of some of the ones we're donating? Would you like one of those? Or against any of the ones I'm keeping?


*I left out Kevin's poetry books because he keeps those on a separate shelf and I don't want to disturb their order. Maybe I'll do an extra post about the poetry at the end.

Authors Beginning with B

As I explained in a previous post, I'm finally going to deal with the hundreds of books I inherited when Dad passed away by going through them by author last name. Dad's books by authors beginning with the letter B was voluminous so it took me much longer than A. I actually had a bunch of my mother's Dave Barry books in this section too. And I know you can't read all the titles, but there were just too many to photograph perfectly. It's more important to push through than to have it be perfect. And hey, now I'm theoretically 1/13th done!

These are the ones I decided to keep- fiction and nonfiction mixed...

And these. Hey there were a lot of B's!


This is the "no" pile.

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned fiction*

And these... and yes we have 3 copies of the Bible... and yes, maybe we should keep them
with nonfiction but we keep them with our fiction because we like the fiction books better 

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned non-fiction


My e-books, all free fiction in this case.

Any arguments in favor of some of the ones we're donating? Would you like one of those? Or against any of the ones I'm keeping?


*I left out Kevin's poetry books because he keeps those on a separate shelf and I don't want to disturb their order. Maybe I'll do an extra post about the poetry at the end.

Authors Beginning with A

As I explained in the last post, I'm finally going to deal with the hundreds of books I inherited when Dad passed away by going through them by author last name. Dad's books by authors beginning with the letter A is a very small collection, so it's possibly given me an false confidence regarding how successful my new plan will be.

Dad's books with authors starting with A.

He also had Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams but I took it to my room to read, and now I can't find it. That was probably his favorite out of this small group.

These are the ones I decided to keep (in addition to Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy)

This is the "no" pile. St. Augustine is in there only because
Kevin already owned it and likes his translator.

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned fiction*

Kevin and Ericka's previously owned non-fiction


My e-books, all free fiction in this case.

Any arguments in favor of some of the ones we're donating? Would you like one of those? Or against any of the ones I'm keeping?


*I left out Kevin's poetry books because he keeps those on a separate shelf and I don't want to disturb their order. Maybe I'll do an extra post about the poetry at the end.

Four Years Later: I Am Still Hoarding My Dad's Books 2014

It's been four years since my father passed away. He wasn't a very materialistic person and he valued only his books and his music. I ignored the issue of his music because I didn't particularly share his musical taste, but I also didn't know what to do about records, tapes, and CDs. I pretty much just listen to free music on the cloud which is good for not hoarding.

But the books! I shared his love of reading, both generally and sometimes specifically. And even the sight of them all clustered together reminds me of my dad. Looking at my books mixed with Kevin's doesn't give the same effect. Many of his books were old and the choices unique to him.  But there are so many of them! It's a wonder we were able to move them. I spent hours packing and unpacking them, and poor Kevin dragged them down one flight of stairs and up two. He must really love me.

When we move again one day, there are too many to take to a new place, and even if they weren't, I certainly won't read all of them. So in the interest of not hoarding I promised to cull them. That was four years ago, and a few of the most terrible out-dated non-fiction books have been culled here and there, but the vast majority of them remain.

Okay, so I have a plan now: I will go by Author last name. On any given day that I deal with the books I will go through one letter, and decide which are staying and which are going. I feel strongly that this will work! Now let's see.

Reading Resolutions 2014

Last year I discovered that it's a little tough for me to read more than about 24 books a year, so this year I wanted to steer myself in the direction of the books I most want to read.

First of all, I will be rereading Kevin's short story collection that comes out this year: We Were Flying to Chicago.

Obviously, the reason I started this blog was to encourage myself to read my dad's books, so I want to make it a priority to read his five favorite books this year. I've already read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though it was many years ago, so I'll reread it. Gravity's Rainbow is going to be super hard. I might dip into some of the extra picks if I can't get through any of the main books.

Dad recs:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (read)
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Extra:
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy by Douglas Adams
The Decay of the Angel, Spring Snow, and The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima

I also asked Kevin for some of his favorites. Obviously this is a tall order for someone who studies and loves literature as much he does, but he gave me the following. I very recently reread Gatsy, and read Jesus' Son and Invisible Cities, so I'll need to read the three on his extra list too.

Kevin recs:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (read)
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson (read)
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (read)
Extra:
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munroe
Esther Stories by Peter Orner

I also asked my friend Michele because she reads a lot, my list needed a feminine perspective, and in the past I've enjoyed her recommendations.

Michele's Recs:
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushde

Extra:
Anything by Richard Russo or Isabel Allende

So that's about 16 choices...

Wild Cards:
I want to finish The Tempest by Shakespeare (because I already started it), and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon because a bunch of people on my Facebook recommended it. I want to finish reading or rereading my stack of baby-related books before my second baby is born. And I want to read the Game of Thrones books because FUN. I might reread some of my favorites (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson) or throw in some non-baby non-fiction (to be determined).

If I manage to get through all that, I can either read whatever I feel like or just start working my way backwards through the list of recent Pulitzer Prize winners.

Pulitzer Prize in Fiction:
2013) The Orphan Master's Son by Johnson, Adam
2012) No award... Finalists:

          Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

          Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
          The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

2011) A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (read it)
2010) Tinkers by Paul Harding
2009) Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2008) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2007) The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2006) March by Geraldine Brooks
2005) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson,  (I really want to read this one)
2004) The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (read it)
2002) Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2000) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Getting Rid of Books! 2013

Well, we've finally started to actually get rid of some of our books. Since getting rid of my dad's books was so hard for me, I started with my own books. Kevin and I have both gone through all the nonfiction books we keep in our living room. We still haven't gone through all the fiction upstairs though, and there's been woefully few dad-books that have left the house. But we've now donated about 23 boxes of books so we're definitely making progress.

Also, even though there haven't been as many reviews as I would like, I have actually started and not-finished countless books that aren't on here, so I'm going to try to wrap some of those up in the near future.

Virtual Book Club- May 2013

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

In case you want to follow along with us, our May book club selection is Water for Elephants. We talk about it on Google+ Hangouts at the end of the month. Let me know if you want to join us.

Since I started this blog, this is the first book I'm reading (finally!) that my dad actually read. He read it shortly after I asked him to join Goodreads, and his review of it was, "Needs more elephants." I love you, dad.

View all my reviews

Avoidance

Why am I reading all books my father didn't read when I have hundreds of his books upstairs and my entire goal here is to read his books? Sounds like a good question right?

Dad's Favorite Books

I recently found my dad's Goodreads.com profile. I'm sure I asked him to join, and I'm not sure how much effort he put into writing his profile but he listed his favorite books:

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1966) (review here)
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992) (review here)
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973) (review here)
The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman (1985)

I've read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but it was many years ago. I do remember loving it. I've tried and failed to read Gravity's Rainbow, but I will try again. I'm afraid of whether or not I got rid of Gödel, Escher, Bach and The Shining Mountain even though I got rid of very very few books, but I will look for them. Maybe starting out with this smaller list will help since it's been two years now and I've made no progress in reading his books.

The School by Donald Barthelme

Since I likely won't be reading a book a day or even a week, I thought I would fill in with the instant gratification of short stories. I don't know why short stories aren't more popular. They're quick and potent like poetry.  Kevin is teaching The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction: 50 North American Stories Since 1970 (Touchstone Books) in class, so I'm picking out some stories from that one first. "The School" by Donald Barthelme is popular enough that I have come across it before. The first time I read it years ago, I thought it was charming and funny. But I'm older now, and my father recently passed away, and I have a baby on the way, and I often wonder, what have I done? What have I done bringing a child into this?

In fact, ironically, the first thing I noticed was not something about the story at all, but the author's birth and death dates. That's what I do now, I measure other people's tragedy against my own to determine how indignant I should be with the universe. Barthelme lived from 1931-1989, just 58 years. I looked it up; he died of cancer.  He was able to say something about life and death before he experienced the latter. That seems important.

Reading it now, it doesn't make me laugh. It makes me cry. Like the children, I want to know where, where, where. Like the children, I would like an assertion of value.

Books My Father Read

I have recently become addicted to book again the way I was when I was a small kid. I read anything I have reason to believe might be awesome.

I read the books I inherited from my dad after he passed away in 2010. This blog started as a project of mourning to read the books I kept, but has now become a personal passion. I also take recommendations from my husband who's a writing instructor, my friends who prefer different types of books, and Goodreads and Youtube reviewers who catch my attention.

This is my rating system for clarification:

5 Stars = THIS BOOK MADE ME A BETTER, MORE INTERESTING PERSON. FOR THE LOVE OF PUPPIES, READ IT!
4 Stars = This book was really good! Read it!
3 Stars = I enjoyed this book. I'm glad I read it.
2 Stars = This book a little bad. I wouldn't recommend it.
1 Stars = This book is kind of evil and takes a little joy and goodness out of the world.