Getting Better All the Time 3.18

I am crazy

Every now and then, some people decide they have too many books, and they gather them up in an airplane hanger in foist them off on the public. My better half used charms to talk me into going on Friday night. And what is more romantic than rummaging through used books on a Friday night?

And we went again on Sunday with a good friend. I had fun hanging out, chatting, seeing what books they got, but I blame them for me getting too many books. They should know that I have no self-control.

Boring list of books warning: Flashing Red

So I can sort of sort them out.

Literature Short stories
Mark Twain’s Best
50 Great Oriental Stories (by Asian authors, published 1965)
American Short Story Masterpieces: (36 post 1945 stories, published 1987)
20 Grand Short Stories: (American, from Scholastic Magazine, published 1947)
50 Great Short Stories: (published 1952, suggested by literature professors)
Best American Short Stories 1962
Ten Modern American Short Stories (published 1965)
So maybe after I read all of these I will know what makes a good short story. Maybe even then be able to write a short story. So I got 195 short stories, average 12.5 pages per story, for 2,445 pages.

Sci-Fi short stories
Dark Masques (modern masters of terror, published 2001, 48 stories from the 1980s)
17 x Infinity (17 sci-fi stories, published 1963, )
Best SF: 1972
50 Strange Stories of the Supernatural (published 1974)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (vol 4, Nebula winners 1970-1974)
The Year’s Best SF ( 1996)
World’s Best Science Fiction 1967
Fifty Years of the Best Science Fiction (from Analog, published 1980)
Well, with this I should be able to write a dated sci-fi story. 191 stories, 3040 pages, averages almost 16 pages per story.

Ich habe fuer sechs Jahre Deutsch studiern. Ich soll meine Deutsch nicht vergessen.
American Love Stories: Yes, more short stories, left page in English, right page a German translation.
Der Prozess Fanz Kafka
German though Pictures a good first year review of common phrases
Geschichte der deutschen Literatur more short stories, 1820-1885
A German picture dictionary, in german.
Biographien bedeutender Mathematiker: biography of mathematicians, interesting, they list David Hilbert, but not Henri Poincaire.

Sometimes I play DnD, and I think that Holli should use poetry. So I couldn’t pass up a W.H. Auden edited anthologies:
Medieval and Renaissance Poets
Restoration and Augustan Poets
Victorian and Edwardian Poets

TS Eliot, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats my favorite poet, at his most bleak :-)

Shakespeare’s Macbeth – none of that over rated Hamlet

Fiction: some classic, some popular, some both.
Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card, excellent
Speaker for the Dead Orson Scott Card
I, Robot Isaac Asimov, I think I read this
Dune Frank Herbert, excellent, but the rest of the series gets progressively worse
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirsig excellent
Watership Down Richard Adams
On A Pale Horse and Ogre, Ogre Piers Anthony
The Once and Future King T.H. White
Drangons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning by Weis & Hickman

And sometimes I believe that if I read certain books, I will become smart and educated and stuff. These ones I’m sure will gather more dust, but won’t people be impressed when they have to sell them at my estate sale?
The Story of Philosophy: from Plato to John Dewey arranged chronologically by philosopher
Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers arranged by topic
Concise Readings in Philosophy: anthology of original material, arranged by topic
The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science EA Burtt, I wonder how this compares with Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions?
The Rights of Man Thomas Paine I am proud of this find, and proud to be an American

And don’t worry sports fans. I still heart math, and got the books to prove it.
Problem Solvers Algebra & Trigonometry 1275 problems with solutions
Problem Solvers Pre-calculus
Plane Geometry Problems with Solutions
A Concise History of Mathematics, this one has a picture of Poincaire, but not of Hilbert.
The World of Mathematics, vol. 2…maybe I can later find the other three volumes

You know, I don’t think I’m crazy, I think I am flippin’ insane.

Posted by joncim at September 25, 2005 05:16 PM