Books

The Professional

Finally finished the last ever Spenser novel yesterday. It has taken me a lot longer than normal to finish for a couple of reasons, Donna got sick so I haven’t had the time and for some reason I just couldn’t get interested in the story. Maybe it was subconscious, knowing that it is the last of the line or maybe it really is as the critics have said, the last several Spenser novels were written on autopilot without much thought to plot, but more a gathering of old friends in familiar situations.

I had started reading them all over again and got as far as #4 before the last two books I didn’t own showed up in the mail. They first few were when Robert B. Parker was feeling his way in developing who Spenser would become and the last few, well, see above. Maybe I need to reread the middle group when the series was really cooking. I’ll start at 15, Crimson Joy, and work my way to Sudden Mischief, #25.

The last book held one last Spenser’s Crime Buster Rule – One of Spenser’s Rules For Criminal Investigation: Most things have two ends. i.e. I’d gotten nothing much from Beth’s end, so I decided to try the other end, and went out to JP to visit Boo.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 553

Three Down, Thirty Four To Go

The other day when I broke out Spenser book number one to grab a quote for inclusion in my post on the passing of it’s author, Robert B. Parker, it was intended to be off the bookshelf for only a few minutes. Didn’t work out that way, I ended up reading the thing again. I was between books anyway and I was having a hard time finding things that I enjoyed reading…

It’s been five days now and I’ve finished reading the first 3 books. It is kind of a nostalgic ride, not so much because I have read the books before, some even more than once, but because of the scene setting descriptions of the attire of the characters in the books. The first book was published in 1973 which was the year I graduated high school and I can really picture those outfits, even used to dress sort of like that sometimes.

Parker wrote one Spenser book a year, like clockwork, and I have have the first 35, in a combination of paper back and hard cover, that should keep me busy for a while. At least long enough to let me track down bargains on the last two novels.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 531

Odds & Ends

This is way cool, instead of hanging your flat panel TV on the wall or hiding it in an armoire, make it into a quasi mid-century MadMen inspired piece of furniture. M21 Flat Panel Console

For Christmas I bought myself a USB TV stick. It came with a chintzy little metal stick antenna that has a magnetic base. I stuck it to back of a panel on my computer desk and it works pretty good pulling in three of the four local stations. The one it is missing is FOX and I kinda want that one. I found a tutorial on how to make a digital TV antenna from wire coat hangers and yesterday I made one. It looks remarkably like this and all I managed to do was ruin 6 coat hangers and get a blister on my right palm because it doesn’t work as good as the throw away one that came with the TV stick.

I’m trying out the latest version of the Google Chrome browser (right now, as I type this!) and it does seem substantially faster than Firefox. Now with extentsions. The first of which I installed was AdBlock… Will the love last?

The office of the University president looked like the front palor of a successful Victorian whorehouse. It was paneled in big squares of dark walnut, with ornately figured maroon drapes at the long windows. There was maroon carpeting and the furniture was black leather with brass studs. The office was much nicer than the classrooms; maybe I should have worn a tie.

That is the opening paragraph from the little book that started it all, The Godwulf Manuscript, the first of 37 Spenser books by Robert B. Parker. Rest in peace Mr. Parker.

The Emperor got a much desrved bath this afternoon.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 531

Whatever The Case May Be

Twelve of eighty-two and we learn just how devious Kate is, both on and off the island. The little airplane is a reminder of a person Kate says she loved, and said she killed. We do know that she orchestrated a bank hold up and shoots several people to get the toy plane. A replica of that plane (included in the Kate “action figure”) sits on my mantle right next to the life-size replica of the dingus from the movie Maltese Falcon.

At the Chocolate Festival this past weekend one of the books I picked up was Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker. It is no secret that I devour his Spenser novels like a starving man at a Thanksgiving buffet, so I figured I’d at least like the book. I did. They’ve made a movie of the book and I have already come across one or two of the scenes from the book in the trailer and if the rest of the movie tracks as well to the book as those bits, this one might be worth seeing in a theater.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 376

My Sentiments Exactly

Finished Spenser book number thirty-five tonight. There were no new Crime Buster Rules in this volume, but I did find out that his feelings for turnovers is exactly like my feelings for pizza:

I finished my turnover. It wasn’t a very good turnover. But the worst turnover I’d ever eaten was excellent. And this one was far from the worst.

The eight new Post Office photos are up on Flickr! and the old school gallery here, but there are no captions yet. This latest set of photos have a cameo appearance by the Emperor’s Mini-Me and the photographer and his navigator.

We are planning a a trip for more Post Office photos this weekend, either Turkey Day or Sunday, depending on which one has better weather. Right now it is a tossup as both days are calling for a 40% chance of rain. Right now we are at 327 out of 461 – 71% complete.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 482

I Took A Day Off

Almost took tonight off too. I have fallen into an old habit – mass market mystery novels. Read one yesterday and I’m knee deep into number 2 today. I have my mother-in-law to thank for this, she also reads the same sort of crap and came back from the library with a stack of about a half dozen of ’em. Yesterday’s book was P is for Peril, as Sue Grafton works her way through the alphabet. Today I am reading Strawberry Sunday: A John Marshall Tanner Novel and tomorrow if all goes as planned I will be knee deep in Janet Evanovich’s Hard Eight, while Stephanie Plum is not a PI like the other two protagonists, she is a bounty hunter who gets thrust into a whole mystery solving thing. My favorite of this genre are Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels. Man I wish I was half as tough and half quick with the snappy answers as Spenser is.

Watching Gulls

Raining on and off, but mostly on, all day. Went out to lunch at the Atlanta Bread Company because we like the food and it is right next to that second-hand book store where we bought some old library books to read yesterday. Ate and went back into get some more used hardcover books for less than the price of a new paperback. Yesterday’s Robert Parker Spenser book lasted all of three hours, kinda like a big ol’ piece of cheesecake; not really good for you, but delicious and sadly, over too soon. After lunch and book buying we headed back over the half-dozen speed bumps of the codo complex back to our parking spot. Still raining, so we spend a lazy afternoon watching the gulls, the waves and the TV out of one eye and ours books out of the other.

Back out for dinner, Donna wanted seafood, so we were headed to Crabby Nick’s where we had eaten before, but somehow ended up at a place called Captain’s Seafood. We had eaten there once before as well and remembered it fondly. Tonight it was packed because a church bus had pulled in about 15 minutes before we did. Still it didn’t take long to get seated and served. Something about fried seafood, a tossed salad and iced tea…mmmm good, but somehow it didn’t seem to be worth the $29 total it cost.

Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/01/02: 37