Tire Replacement

I've been getting flats on my front bicycle tire regularly over the past two or three weeks. Fortunately, there haven't been any on the rear tire during that time period. I suspected that it was time to replace the tires and I searched the blog to find out how long it's been since the tires were last replaced. A blogpost from July of 2024 gave the answer. As near as I can estimate, I've ridden 5,000 miles on the set I put on at that time. According to the post, 5,000 miles was about the same number that I had put on the earlier set.

It's still a week from payday, but I couldn't wait any longer to replace the front tire (and tube). Since I haven't gotten any flats on the rear, I think I can hold off changing the rear tire for another week.

I'm making a note of the total miles on my bicycle app.. I can reference this post to keep a more accurate count of the mileage between tire replacment.
8,802 miles.
The cost to replace the tire and tube (including labor) came to ₱ 1,590. That doesn't include the ₱50 tip.

 

A Few More Books.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've fallen behind on my reading during the past few months. With Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, I hope to get back up to speed.

Upon finishing Hangover Square I began reading a book recommended by Christine Rosen on the Commentary Magazine podcast, Out by Japanese writer, Natsuo Kirino. Being a Japanese mystery/detective novel makes Out exactly what I'm looking for.

As I write this post, I am 50% in. I should be finished before long. There are more twists and turns in the story than I expected and I have absolutely no clue as to how the book will end.

I also mentioned in my last post that my PC had been acting up. While trying to get it back up to normal, I transferred quite a few ebooks to my phone. I'd have plenty to read if my PC continued to give me problems. Now that I'm back to reading, I'm going to read the ebooks in the order in which they come up on my phone app.. These means the next two books following Out will be The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter and Dracula by Bram Stoker. I last read Dracula in 2016. I'd been watching newer film versions and decided I'd reread the book. I don't recall how I came upon Angela Carter's book. Looks to be a bit spooky.

My Return

It's been ages since I've last published a blog post......not since April 2, 2025 as a matter of fact.

There are a number of reasons why I've neglected the blog. First of all, there was a problem with my PC. It took quite some time to get it running and I still don't know if it's completely up to where it should be.

Also, I've not been reading as much as I had been doing in the past. Since that last blog post, I've only read nine books; fewer in nine months than had been my usual number for just one month.

In April, I read three books by Ed McBain: Lady Killer - Killer's Wedge and 'Til Death.

I managed two by Donna Leon in April and May:Transient Desires and Give Unto Others. In June, I read Pope Leo XIII's Encyclicals and reread The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Only one book in July: Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson .

From July 04 until December 21 I only managed to read one: Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton.

I don't recall exactly how I came upon Hangover Square but I'm glad I did. The novel is dark and intense. It is considered by critics to be Hamilton' best work. According to wikipedia, the novel is

Set against the backdrop of the days preceding Britain declaring war on Germany, the main character is George Harvey Bone, a lonely borderline alcoholic who has a form of dissociative identity disorder, referred to in the text as a "dead mood".

When the novel was written,"dissociative identity disorder" would have been called "multiple personalities".

I'm hoping with this post, I'll return to blogging and after Hangover Square, I'll return to reading as often as I did in the past.

The Case of the Sulky Girl, by Erle Stanley Gardner

Growing up, I was a fan of the Perry Mason television series starring Raymond Burr. As much as I enjoyed the series, it never occurred to me to read any of the Perry Mason books written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Having recently watched some of the films from the 1930s starring Warren William, I decided to give the books a try.

I read the first book in the Perry Mason series, The Case of the Velvet Claws the last week of March and upon finishing it, I immediately began reading the second book,The Case of The Sulky Girl. Unlike in the first book, we actually see Mason doing his thing in the courtroom in this one.

Being a fan of the genre, it wasn't difficult for me to spot the killer. Of course, I'll provide no spoilers.

These books are not great works of literature. Erle Stanley Gardner was no Fyodor Dostoevsky;The Case of The Sulky Girl isn't Crime and Punishment, but it is entertaining, never the less. I'll be reading more in the series as time goes by.

The March, 2025 Reading List

 

Of the ten books read in the month of March, all but one fall into the crime/mystery/detective story genre. In February, only five of the ten books read that month fit into the same category. It would appear that my reading selections are heading in that direction.

Three of the books on the list are by Ed McBain from his "87th Precinct" series. I first learned of Ed McBain from my reading the work of 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. The three for this month are The Con Man,Killer's Choice and Killer's Payoff.

I had never heard of Scottish crime fiction novelist Denzil Meyrick until I read of his death recently. Going to the Wikipedia article on him, I learned of his DCI Jim Daley series, of which Whisky From Small Glasses is the first of eleven in the series.
I enjoyed the novel and I'm sure to go on to more. However, there are two reasons why I can't give this book five stars. The stories take place in Scotland, so naturally Meyrick gives most of the characters in the book Scottish accents. Yes, it gives an authenticity to the plot, but it makes it very difficult for me to follow along at times.
Also, without giving away anything, it became obvious to me who the killer was long before Meyrick let it be known in the story. Maybe I'm just too familiar with the crime fiction genre.
The Last Witness is the second in the same series. I'm really enjoying my discovery of Denzil Meyrick's DCI Daley series. The stories are exciting, suspenseful, and oddly enough, humorous at times.

Being a big fan of Donna Leon's novels (set in Venice) when I learned of a series, also set in Venice, by Philip Gwynne Jones, I thought I should look into them. I gave this first book in the series, The Venetian Game, only three stars.....I liked it but it doesn't compare to Donna Leon's writing. I'll eventually get around to finishing Jones' series, but all in good time.

Speaking of Donna Leon, I read two in her Commissario Guido Brunetti series. One of my favorite crime/detective series.

Although I grew up watching the Perry Mason tv series starring Raymond Burr, I never thought of reading Erle Stanley Gardner's books until recently when I watched some of the Perry Mason films from the 1930s starring Warren William. I must say, the Perry Mason character in the first book, The Case of the Velvet Claws isn't at all like the character as portrayed by either William or Burr.I'm giving this book three stars....an interesting read. I'll go to more in the Perry Mason series.

Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work by Johann Nikolaus Forkel was a disappointment and the less said, the better.

The complete list:
The Con Man        by Ed McBain
Whisky from Small Glasses    by Denzil Meyrick
The Venetian Game       by Philip Gwynne Jones
Killer's Choice      by Ed McBain
Killer's Payoff       by Ed McBain
Unto Us a Son Is Given   by Donna Leon
Trace Elements        by Donna Leon
The Last Witness   by Denzil Meyrick
Johann Sebastian Bach:His Life, Art, and Work   by Johann Nikolaus Forkel
The Case of the Velvet Claws    by Erle Stanley Gardner

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