Reading List For February, 2025

 

Although there's still several hours left in February, it's unlikely that I'll finish another book today so I'll go ahead and post the list of books I read in February, 2025.

Fevor by Toby Lloyd was recommended by someone on the Commentary Magazine podcast - I think it might have been Seth, I can't remember exactly. I enjoyed the book, although I only rate it three stars out of five. I felt the story fell apart at the end.

Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse was mildly amusing. Eleven short stories featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster; not all the stories are up to par but a good read. Three stars.

I have two books this month by Donna Leon. I enjoy everything I read written by her.

Quest For Fire by J.H. Rosny was published in 1911. It's very different than the 1981 film. I was expecting the book to be better than the film (which I really enjoyed, by the way) but the book seems to be more Tarzanesque. Is there such a word? I can only give the book 2 stars - which translates to "it was OK".

Originally published in 1995, many of the cultural references in the late Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted:World Science as a Candle in the Dark ( such as the "crop circles" hoaxes from the 1980s ) are a bit dated. However, the main theme - that people need to be encouraged to learn critical and skeptical thinking - is relevant today. Still, I only gave it two stars on Goodreads.

I remember that as a child of the late 1950s, we were told that America was named for Amerigo Vespucci, but little else was mentioned of him. I recently saw an American TV personality go on a rant about how America was named for "some Italian white guy". I wanted to get a reasonably unbiased history of Vespucci, so I read his biography - written in 1907 by Frederick Ober. I was sure that being written when it was, it wouldn't contain "woke" propaganda. For anyone interested in history, this book is a must read.

I first learned of Ed McBain from reading Haruki Murakami. A character in one of Murakami's novels mentions reading something by McBain. I did a search of McBain and learned he wrote 55 books in the "87th precinct" series. I've read three in the series and find them entertaining. The books are like the "film noir" movie genre of the 40s and 50s.

Now, for the list:

Fervor                    by Toby Lloyd
Very Good, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Earthly Remains   by Donna Leon
Cop Hater             by Ed McBain
The Mugger          by Ed McBain
Quest for Fire       by J. H. Rosny
Amerigo Vespucci   by Frederick A Ober
The Demon-Haunted World:Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
The Temptation of Forgiveness   by Donna Leon
The Pusher   by Ed McBain

Reading List For January, 2025

It's now the end of the month, so it's time again for the list of books read during the month. With twelve books read in January, this is most read in any one month since April of 2021 when the monthly count was 15.

This month, I'll be listing the books differently; normally I'd list the books in the order read. This time they'll be grouped by writer.

There were five written by Donna Leon, three by P.G. Wodenhouse, two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and one each by Haruki Murakami and Larry Denninger.

I'm giving each book by Leon, Wodenhouse and Murakami five stars. Larry Denninger's book receives three stars. Sadly, Toshikazu Kawaguchi's two books are only getting two stars each. These two are part of a five book series - much of what's written doesn't hold up after five books.

The list:

Beastly Things
The Golden Egg
By Its Cover
Falling in Love
The Waters of Eternal Youth   by Donna Leon 

A Damsel in Distress
Right Ho, Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters   by P.G. Wodehouse 

 
Before We Say Goodbye
Before We Forget Kindness   by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 

 
End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland   by Haruki Murakami

 
Songs for Clara   by Larry Denninger

Haruki Murakami's "End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland" A New Translation by Jay Rubin

A few days ago, I wrote a blog post on Haruki Murakami's novel End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland. As I mentioned in the post, I had read Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in October and after reading Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami the first week of December, I wanted to read Jay Rubin's new translation of End of the World........

At the time of that blog post, I had only read about 65% of Rubin's translation. I write:
It's odd. I seem to have a good recollection of the "End of the World" section, although in many ways, the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seems almost completely new to me. It's still difficult for me to connect the two sections. With luck, I'll be able to do that when I finish this re-read.

I went to readings list to compare the length of time it had taken me to read the two different translations. The new translation was taking a bit longer. I read exclusively e-books now, so I did not immediately notice the difference in the actual length of the books. I opened both files and saw right away that in my PC's e-reader, the difference was obvious - Birnbaum's translation contains 273 pages - Rubin's translation comes to 404 pages! It's little wonder that much of the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seemed completely new. Had these two books been in print form, I would have seen the difference. In his afterword to his translation, Rubin explains why Murakami wanted him to restore the pages omitted in Birnbaum's translation.

Having read the Rubin translation, I can connect the two sections. Anyone wanting to read Sekai no Owari to Hādo-Boirudo Wandārando should choose the newly released Rubin translation - End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland..

Books Read in 2024

In 2011, I began a tradition of keeping a list on my PC of the books I'd read. I had originally posted these lists once a year on another blog. When I started this blog, it became apparent to me that posting the list annually was no longer practical and in January, 2021 I began posting the book lists monthly. In January 2022 I started providing links to the monthly book lists. I'm continuing that tradition with this post.

In 2024,I read 80 e-books. There's a tie between Donna Leon and Haruki Murakami for the most books read by one writer, at six books each. Since discovering those two, I've read twenty books by Leon, but that number is spread out over two years. There are currently thirteen books by Donna Leon that I haven't read - I'll try to finish her collection in 2025.

In 2022, I discovered the work of Toshikazu Kawaguchi. He had three books in a series available at that time. I've since learned that he has released two more books in the series which I hope to get to this year. There's so much I need to read!

Here are the links to the monthly reading lists of 2024

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December