This Is Me--2024 A to Z Theme

My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2024 the theme is a personal retrospective that I call "I Coulda Been" which is in reference to my job and career arc over my lifetime. I'll be looking at all sorts of occupations that I have done or could have done. Maybe you've done some of these too!

Friday, April 21, 2023

Reality Rocks ( #AtoZChallenge )

#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter R


      Reality and research books rank high with me.   If you've been following my 2023 A to Z series you have likely noticed that my book collection is heavily weighted on the side on non-fiction and other informational type books.  Don't get me wrong though.  I do still enjoy reading fiction and many books of this nature reside on my shelves.  Philip Roth is one of those authors that I highly regard.  His novel Nemesis is one of the great bargains I picked up when my neighborhood Borders Books closed down some ten years or so ago.  On the final day of their closing sale, I walked out of the store with a big bag of mainly hardback books that I had bought for $1.25 each.  There were some excellent books that I took away from that now lamented Borders.  Unfortunately, my copy of the Roth book and other Roth books previously purchased through other outlets are boxed up or hidden away so that they were not easily accessible for photographing for this post.  But I highly recommend Nemesis for those who enjoy a poignant story by a masterful writer.  

       Here are the 'R' books that I did see out in the open on my bookshelves...

 

Reader's Digest Condensed Books

       Many people have acquired one or more of these volumes in their home libraries.  They've been a mainstay for book lovers for over fifty years now.  The earliest ones I own came from my mother's and her parents' collections.   Later in my life I also apparently bought a few since I have some from the nineties.  If you're not familiar with these compilations, they are shortened versions of popular novels of a particular year.  A book like this is nice for those frivolous reading times such as vacations.  Or to get an overview of what types of books have recently been published.  They are excellent for those times when you want to read something, but you've got nothing specific to read.   It's like their namesake magazine.  My mother frequently subscribed to Reader's Digest Magazine when I was younger and I always enjoyed reading through that publication.  Later, in the nineties when I settled down in Los Angeles, for a while I also subscribed to the magazine and have kept them neatly packed away in boxes for a future reader to enjoy.


Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus 

       If you think of yourself as a writer or even don't, then you surely have this book on your shelf.  Or at least some kind of thesaurus.   However Roget is maybe the gold standard of this kind of book.  Now, as I usually do, you probably just go online to find this information, but having this book near at hand just seems so professional.  The copy shown is a nice hardback that I got from a book club.   I probably could find at least six other thesauruses in our house if I looked for a few minutes.


Religions

       As mentioned in previous posts, I have many books about the Bible and religion in general.  Most of my religious books are focused on Christianity since that is the system upon which my spiritual beliefs are founded, but there are some others as well.    Like this one...


        This is probably a book that I obtained through some book club, but I don't really know where or when I got it.  It appears to be a reasonably good overview of the major religions of the world though I have not actually read any of it so I'm not sure how good it is.  The book gets good Amazon reviews so maybe it's a worthwhile book to own.  It's a nice one to help fill out the shelves that I have dedicated to books on religion.



Riddles of the Sphinx by Paul Jordan

       This is undoubtedly an interesting subject.  It was interesting enough to lure me into buying a copy of this nice looking volume.  But apparently it's not interesting enough for me to have read it yet.  Maybe one of these days I'll crack this one open to learn what the Sphinx riddles are.





        Since buying this book from the Doubleday Book Club when I was a high school senior in 1969, I have referred to it often.  This was one of my favorite books to read through back then and I still pick it up every now and then.  In fact, I relied on this book heavily when I was compiling my 2022 A to Z posts about my record collection.   The book is pretty much outdated as far as rock and roll history--it only goes up to 1969--but it provides some nice details about artists you know and some you might have never heard of.  A recent surprise came when I watched the 2019 Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman.  The film tells how Reddy's career in the U.S. was given a boost through her friendship with fellow Aussie Lillian Roxon who was already living in NYC where she had established her career as a writer.   When Reddy arrives in America Roxon is working on her Rock Encyclopedia.   Prior to seeing this movie (in March of 2023) I knew nothing of Lillian Roxon.  It was nice to get some backstory on her and her book.  Roxon's Encyclopedia was revised in 1978, but I'm proud to own a copy of the original version.  It's a fantastic book for anyone who has been a fan of rock and pop music.

     



Rolling Stone Record Guide

        During the seventies I had begun amassing a considerable amount of records and other recorded materials.  I had become a bit fanatic about buying music.  When I saw this Guide in one of my frequent bookstore visits I immediately snatched it up.  I can't say that I always agree with the critical assessments of many of the albums reviewed here, but it's interesting to read other points of view about recordings in my collection as well as other recordings I might consider buying.  Of course this is a bit outdated since all the albums discussed in these pages came out more than forty years ago, but it makes for enjoyable perusal of the music of the past if you're into that sort of thing like I am.




Robert E. Lee by Emory M Thomas 

        Still another book about the Civil War in my collection.  And any good collection of Civil War books should have a book about this great Confederate general.  So now my collection has representation by Lee and Jackson.   Makes sense to me.




Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederacy by Nelson Lankford

        And moving on to still another book about the Civil War, this book has been one of my favorite reads.  Filled with detail and well-painted word images, I found this to be an enthralling story about a sad time in the history of the United States.   Since I had lived in Richmond at one time, I was familiar with localities talked about in the book.   I was able to really immerse myself in the story and this is a book that I will likely read again.




Read With Me compiled by Thomas B. Costain

       Here's another book that's been on my shelves since my high school days.  It came out in 1965 and I got my copy through the Doubleday Book Club.  I used to buy a lot of short story collections.  But more on that in my next post...



       Have you ever read any of the condensed selections in a Readers Digest book?   Are there any particular book topics or themes that you have tended to collect?   Do you prefer short stories or novels?






11 comments:

  1. Jamie (jannghi.blogspot.com):
    I had and probably still do (a lot of my books are in storage bins in the garage) a later edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide. Mine is from the 90s. I also have the Rolling Stone Rock Almanac from 1983 and the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock, the second edition from 1995. I had the first one from 1983 that fell apart. And I have plenty of the magazine as well, something I am discussing today.

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  2. Hi, Lee!
    Hardbacks for a$1.25? I’d need a moving van ;-) I’ve always enjoyed Reader’s Digest, though I read it mostly online these days. The Rock and Roll Encyclopedia sounds really interesting, and I love American history.

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    Replies
    1. Diedre, I bought a lot of books during that last week of our Borders store. I would have bought a lot more if I hadn't been in such financial straits at the time. Most of the ones I bought are packed in boxes because I ran out of room to display them.

      Lee

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  3. I never read them, but Grandma Holton had a collection of the Readers Digest Condensed Books. She read a lot...

    Philip Roth wrote "Portnoy's Complaint" and "Goodbye, Columbus," didn't he?

    Mary and I loved going to Borders and hanging out in the cafe on Friday afternoon. I miss having them there.

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    Replies
    1. John H, Roth did write those two and I had one if not both of them many years ago. I can't remember if I read them though--or what happened to them.

      I miss book stores and record stores. I could spend an hour or more in either. Now both are very difficult to find.

      Lee

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  4. Used to read readers digests a long time ago.

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  5. Yes, I own a thesaurus. Not Roget's, though. You've got quite the collection of books.

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  6. Roget's Thesaurus has pulled me back from an edge of an edit, and into a new view of something several times.

    Sometimes those places needed editing too, but seemed a bit more magical.

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  7. One thing I notice about our different habits: you collect books to read at some future point; if I could be reading five books at once, I prolly would. Almost everything I have has been read multiple times, especially The Guns Of August and Trinity.

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    Replies
    1. CW, maybe part of my habit started with those multiple books for a dollar or whatever. Join a few of those at once and it's overwhelming. I think I like being overwhelmed.

      Lee

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  8. I was a voracious reader when I was a lad, so sometimes Reader's Digest was my go-to reading book whenever I was visiting an elderly person's house.

    I mostly collect non-fiction books that run the gamut of topics, with a special interest in true-crime. My pride and joys are three Time-Life book series that I acquired through their book club: one on the Civil War, one on true crime and one was a reprint series of memoirs about the Civil War. I've also acquired books from writer friends from time to time as well.

    I do enjoy reading fiction, but I'm a bit more pickier about the genre.

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Lee