Follow up day

I'm having a difficult time moving out of vacation mode. I'm tired, sore and unmotivated, for that I blame Fitbit's weekly stat report. Below is yesterday's report summary:

Hi Toad D., here are your weekly stats.
4/14/2014 to 4/20/2014

Wed, Apr 16 WEEK'S MOST ACTIVE DAY
Thu, Apr 17 WEEK'S LEAST ACTIVE DAY***

88,855 TOTAL STEPS (2100 steps/mile)
12,694 steps DAILY AVERAGE
BEST DAY 17,767 steps
213,549 total lifetime steps
TOTAL DISTANCE
42.07 miles
6.01 miles DAILY AVERAGE
BEST DAY 8.41 miles

*** Thursdays and Sundays are rest days.

I was hesitant to buy a pedometer figuring that once I knew how far I walked I'd lose interest in tomorrow. So far Fitbit has kept the dogs and I moving, but we are too tired to care any more. Perhaps we need to join someone's friend group.

II. Two Books

I have recently come across 2 books you may be interested in. The first for the Brits and car guys is "The British Car Industry Our Part in its Downfall" by James Ruppert retells the story of the mass suicide of British car manufacturing in the 1960's and 70's, as seen from the cars in the Ruppert family's garage. If you have owned and loved Brit cars for as long as I have you know some of the story, but there were still bits I was unaware of,such as how the British Army re-created Volkswagen after the war, and how while BMW owned Rover, BMW co-opted the ready to market Mini and developed their X line of 4 wheel drive cars using Land Rover technology.

The other of more general interest is "The Ayatollah Begs to Differ" by Hooman Majd.

Mr. Majd, the son of a Iranian diplomat during the Shah's reign was educated in Britain and the US, now lives in America, and is a frequent visitor to Iran where members of his family still live. Iran is still too misunderstood in the west and Mr. Majd attempts to lift the veil and give westerners a look at how the people, government and the Shia branch of Islam coexist. He provides a clever look at and context for modern Iran.

III. Tom: the Unknown Tennessee Williams

I picked this up at Faulkner House book story in Nola and am finding it a slog. Have you gotten through it? Is it worth the continued effort?
Toad

WTW?

 I "NEEDED" to find a copy of  Godfrey Hodgson's  The Gentleman From New York : Daniel Patrick Moynihan.  My usual sources turned up dry so I resorted to buying a copy, in hardback, on line. 

The price is whatever the seller declares. That the book is worth that price is incalculable to a buyer until he reads it, by then it is too late.  If the price line crosses the willingness to pay line books change hands.   My copy of Mr. Hodgson's book cost 14 cents plus $3.85 shipping.   Sight unseen, I feel I've gotten my money's worth, but I'll always wonder why they bothered.

Toad

book report day

It has been unseasonably cold. For the past 3 weeks daily highs in the 50F's, hard rain every other day, the iron horse is broken beyond repair, nothing to do but spend afternoons curled up with a book or two. Mercifully, this weekend highs are forecast in the 90's.

I'll share my findings with you.


Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden.

I knew nothing of the Burden family before picking this up. It was a surprise to me to learn the mousy little Latin teacher at my high school, was Wendy's uncle, but that is my only connection. Little did I know he was one of the richest men in America.

The Burden family are descendants of Commodore Vanderbilt. By Wendy's birth in 1955 the family had ossified to a group of bright, underachieving misanthropes. Her family memoir, is perhaps unintentionally, the funniest book I'd read in a very long time. The privileged are different, mostly in ways you'd wouldn't even dream of. You wouldn't wish their life on anyone you remotely cared for.

Great beach reading.


Kid Carolina by Heidi Schnakenberg

This is a biography of R.J. Reynolds, Jr. son of the founder of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. After his parents early death, Junior was left a great fortune and little responsibility, never a good combo. The burden of family, money, free time led to a playboy life, and a life long inability to accept personal responsibility for any of his actions. In a phrase, he became a world class drunk. Not much of a story, and feels like it's a morality tale written by or for 12 year olds.

Give it a pass.

How could I not love it? I've had a crush on Dominique since forever.

Perhaps because I'm male, or more likely I was going through my, let me fix it phase, that I got bogged down. It was a tough go for a while for me, before I finally got it .

So I put it down for a day or two, then was able to get into the rhythm of the story. The best review I've read was Sunday in the NYT, I'll let them tell the story. They do it better than I could ever hope to.

Buy 2 copies, and give 1 away.

Were you aware that most of what we conjure up when thinking about French style, its sense of fashion, furnishings, champaign, jewelry, and cafe society, sprung from whole cloth during the reign of The Sun King, from 1660 to 1715? I wasn't.

Prior to his reign, France was barely recognized by Europeans. Venice had style, London had quality, Amsterdam had money. By 1700, Paris was recognized as the world capital of style, a position it still holds.

If you are interested in the history of fashion and lifestyle, I recommend it.




The final installment of Johnny's trilogy of food writing. If like our family, you travel with Apple's America as a guide to good eats, you will enjoy it.

Not a great beach read, but a perfect vacation afternoon read. Its chapters are by geographic area. No need to read it sequentially.

Enjoy your day at your neighborhood independent bookstore. They need your support.

Toad

Getting in touch with my...

Could it be, my life's love has filled the salt shaker with estrogen?

I'm a reader. Mostly non-fiction. During the past week, I can barely read a book start to finish without getting caught up in the sad parts.

Imagine you're writing a book. The publishers expect you to follow the standard arc. Intro, dull bits, conflict, cure.



I can't get through the drama. I'm reading a book because I care, or want to care about the subject. Get to the the trauma and I wanna fix it. Makes no difference if it happened long ago, to people long dead, or a buddy. I can make it better, if only....

I've got to snap out of this. A book a day has shown up this week, most of which I dare not crack, for fear of becoming forever tainted. TIVO is filled with half watched movies I can't man up to finish. This is awful.

It's cook books for me this week. Food porn. No drama, no fixin's.

Toad