Challenge: 50 Books discussion

It's going to be a while before I get to the next book in my reading pile, but I figure if I don't get this started sooner, rather than later, then when it comes time to actually post my first book read, I'll freak out and think Goodreads ate my thread, instead of remembering I hadn't started one yet.

No goals for my reading year this time around. 2020 completely broke me (my spirit, my sanity, my drive to do anything), and I figure that if I get even a single book read, it'll be amazing. The past year, I've also gotten behind on reading my Goodreads digests and discussion threads, so I'm hoping to get back on track with that in 2021. (*sigh*)

Love to you. 2020 was hard on us all. May 2021 bring better days.

That's so sweet of you! Thank you!

Ditto what Stefanie said! I hope we can all find comfort in some good books this year. Aren't we fortunate we all love to do something that meets the COVID guidelines for safety? Ha.

Ann A wrote: "Ditto what Stefanie said! I hope we can all find comfort in some good books this year. Aren't we fortunate we all love to do something that meets the COVID guidelines for safety? Ha."

Good point indeed! Stay home, stay safe, stay healthy, stay reading! :D

1. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

My full review is here.

(I don't remember if my calculations said I'd finish this -- my first book planned -- on January 14th or if I'd start it on the 14th, but today's the 14th and I've finished it, so I'm either right on schedule, or a few days ahead! Woohoo!)

2. The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making

*sigh* One year and 30 days after I started this book, I finally finished it. It is LONG, it is IN-DEPTH, it is DETAILED... I had to take a VERY long break from it.

But now it's done, and I can move on. It wasn't *bad*, it was just looooooong and in-depth and sometimes went off on tangents that didn't seem related to what I thought we were supposed to be talking about.

3. The Haunted Showboat (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #35, 1957)

Some comfort reading for the stressful days.

The only problem I found with my plan was that even once I could tell I wasn't feeling stressed any more and my blood pressure had returned to normal, I didn't want to put the book down! :)

4. Story of Myth

I feel like this book says a lot of things that are said about Greek myths in other places/books/analyses, but this book brings them all together into one book. Nothing groundbreaking, but a good overview of common themes in Greek myths.

5. George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker

A quick but nice overview of George Balanchine's life, works, and time with American Ballet, New York City Ballet, and School of American Ballet.

6. Edgar: An Autobiography

We finally got an autobiography of Edgar Martinez, one of the biggest heroes/biggest legends/nicest guys in Seattle sports history.

If you're a Mariners/Edgar fan, you've heard a lot of these stories before (Edgar as a child hiding when his parents moved to New York, the 1995 season, his eye problems, weighing his bats), but it's still nice to get those stories from his side, and putting them all together in one collection to show What Makes Edgar Great.

7. Community-Based Exhibition Model

The Wing Luke Museum in Seattle has become well-known throughout the museum world (or at least in the U.S.) for their innovative community-based exhibits, where museum staff let community members guide the development of exhibits. In this short book, Cassie Chinn from the museum describes the process, and uses the 2005 "Sikh Community: Over 100 Years in the Pacific Northwest" as a case study for this approach.

8. The Lavender Palette: Gay Culture and the Art of Washington State

The companion book to an art exhibit featuring gay artists from Washington state and the northwest in the early- to mid-20th century.

9. Anne of Green Gables

Obviously Anne of Green Gables is Anne of Green Gables. The difference with this edition is the Norton Critical Edition part, which seemed to me not as good as other Norton Critical Editions. Some of the footnotes seemed obvious or pointless, and some of the essays didn't really bring much insight. Others, though, were good, so I'm giving this edition 3 stars: I was a little disappointed... but maybe for some reason I'd just built it up in my head that it was going to be something magnificent, and it was only normal.

10. National Trust Guide Seattle: America's Guide for Architecture and History Travelers

I started reading this as my book to read while brushing my teeth a few months ago, fantasizing about all the places I'd like to visit in Seattle once the pandemic goes away.

A couple of days after I finished reading it, my mom had to be in Seattle for the day while my father was having some medical stuff done. I offered to keep her company, and we ended up doing some of the walks in the book. Such good timing! Of course, it makes me laugh reading the book, since the book is 20+ years old, some of the landmarks in it are no longer there.

11. Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis

Late last year (I was going to say "A few months ago," but then realized it was actually late last year... What is time anymore?) I had to move a bookcase, and as I was putting books back, I decided it was time to read a bunch I'd collected years ago but hadn't read yet, which is how this one FINALLY made it into my reading pile.

*sigh* Good old Freud. These are interesting essays, but I'm not sure I buy some of the things he says. I don't know how much of that is because these were written in the early/earlier days of psychoanalysis and how much of it is because I'm not a Freudian (I'm also not a psychologist/analyst; just someone interested in reading Freud's theories). But really, are all anxieties and neuroses caused by the libido? Is wanting physical relations really a sign of perversion? I don't think so, but we seem to disagree on those points.

12. The Problems of Philosophy

Another book I've had for a very long time, finally getting read! Yay! .... But, um, in the past three weeks, I've also won a very large book at a virtual event and gotten 4 (smallish) cozy books. So... on the one hand, I'm finally reading a bunch of books that I've had forever; on the other hand, I'm not actually clearing out the bookcases! *sigh* The life of a book addict!
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Instead of "The Problems of Philosophy," this should be called "Some Questions In Philosophy." This book isn't saying there's a problem with philosophy or that there's something wrong with it, but is looking at Knowledge and Truth and how we Know a thing is True, and Appearance and senses vs. Reality and physical Truths, and similar questions.

He asks these big questions that at first seem like the answer is "Well, duh, it's because..." but then he explains why your simple answer isn't really all that simple or accurate. Then he gives understandable analogies that help you see what was wrong with your answer and how to think about it more fully.

I give this 4 stars: concepts were explained in (more or less) easy ways, but I'll forget most of them in a few days.

13. My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House

Overall, this book was kind of a letdown, but that could be in large part because I loved Backstairs at the White House (the 1979 miniseries and companion book based on this book) so much, and this didn't live up to them.

14. Leaving Everything Most Loved

My 4th-of-July semi-regular tradition (in that I typically only read this series around the 4th of July, but not *every* 4th of July). It ends with a good cliffhanger, and part of me wants to get the next book in the series and read it right away.

15. The Midnight Library

I give this 2 stars: it was okay, but certainly not (at least for me) the Amazing book the reviews promised. It had a great premise, but I had a lot of issues with it and my life is no better now that I've read it. I didn't absolutely hate it (at least, not the last half), but I'm also not going to have fond memories of it. I wouldn't recommend it. (My very long review is here.)

16. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire

In a college English class long ago, we read a selection from this (or Epistemology of the Closet, her other book on this topic; I thought I had them in the correct to-read order, but it's been so long that I'm now doubting myself) and I was on the fence about whether I believed Sedgwick's claims and how often they appear in literature, but I was at least interested, so I added both of her books to my list of books to find.

Now that I'm finally getting around to reading them, boy am I glad I had English teachers walking me through her work the first time I read them. In stereotypical literary critical theory ways, Sedgwick's writing seems (to me, at least, and I think to at least a few other Goodreads reviewers) to say A LOT... there are a whole lot of (high-falutin') words to make her point and explanations. One reviewer calls it "convoluted," and I'll agree, or go with the nicer term of "not accessible" -- if you're not supersmart with your critical theory background, you might have trouble understanding what the heck all her yabba yabba is about. I tried really hard to reach back in my brain to that English class, but I still had trouble with it.

17. Creating Exhibits That Engage: A Manual for Museums and Historical Organizations

Meh. (Review is here, if there are any museum professionals reading this.)

18. Active Collections

Another museum nerd book. Loved it -- so many new and good ideas.

19. Wealth and Power in Provincial Mexico: Michoacán from the Late Colony to the Revolution

Overall, this is probably a decent book. I can't be sure because there are historical events and factors that I don't have previous knowledge or understanding of, and I don't always understand economics, but she did a fairly good job of introducing shifts in thinking and how they affected the economy, politics, land, and people.

20. Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings

My second visit with Jorge Luis Borges. The short stories were good, the essays weren't so much, and the parables were fine. I feel like I didn't like this collection as much as I liked Ficciones.

21. Monumental Seattle: The Stories Behind the City's Statues, Memorials, and Markers

The last few weeks, I've been admonishing myself for not getting far enough through different reading piles this year and not hitting my Goodreads goal of 30 books, but I just noticed that *here*, I specifically said I didn't have a goal, so woohoo! :)

22. The Clue in the Crossword Cipher (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #44, 1967)

This was pretty awful. The story was way more far-fetched than normal, and the author seems to *really* hate Bess. Normally in the old Nancy Drew books, Bess is called overweight or plump, they tease about her eating and boy-craziness, call her scared and timid, but this one is SO much more harsh than usual. Ugh.

23. Epistemology of the Closet

The follow-up to Between Men (see above). Now that I've read this book, too, I think it must have been Between Men that we read in class -- not that this book seemed any less familiar than the other, but the overall topic of the other seems to fit the content of the class better. What a letdown to not have that a-ha moment of "Hey! Now I remember reading this!"

24. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview

Yikes. Overall, this wasn't one of the better Pop Culture and Philosophy books. (Full review is here.)

25. Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections: A Practical Guide for Museums

Yet another museum professionals book :)

26. Rick Steves' Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler

I will never travel, especially not to Europe, but this is still a nice little reference book about art styles, art history, and world history.

27. Seattle Architecture: A Walking Guide to Downtown

9 districts/sections of Seattle's downtown, laid out as walking tours discussing some of the architecture in each district.

I just sat at home and read this, but I do hope to take it with me to downtown Seattle someday and do these walks. It's a good overview of some of the architecture. Sadly, it's outdated now and it's amazing to see how much has changed in the last 14 years.

I'm torn about whether I might get one more quick book in before the end of the year, but I'm thinking it might not happen, so I'm closing my list down for the year. Overall, it was a decent reading year, but I did hit another rough patch of not being in the mood to read for days/weeks.

I was reorganizing bookshelves the other day, and accidentally made a to-read pile that was literally 12" high, so I have about the next 8 months' worth of reading ready to go for 2022!