Reading – James M. Day

The Loft Library Turns Two

I had often read about The Little Free Library project where people build small boxes and fill them with books for anyone to borrow (or keep). The idea is that people donate books so that others can read them.

In February 2018, when my neighbor Lisa suggested we start a small library for the residents of our building, I quickly agreed. We took over the shelf above the mailboxes in the building’s lobby. She created a sign and I contributed some metal bookends. Together we seeded the initial inventory from our spare books. On March 1st we started with an initial collection of 26 books, shelved by author.

Over the next two years, the library’s collection grew and changed many times. Residents borrowed and added books. We eventually added DVDs and computer software. The collection changed and was rearranged so often that I finally gave up alphabetizing them. It seems our little Loft Library has been very successful.

Cars, Beers, and Books

When I last saw Steve Berry at The BookMark in January, he announced that he would be back on March 6, 2020 for his new book The Warsaw Protocol. Last time, I left work at 5:00 pm and arrived at the bookstore just in time for the talk. This time I decided to leave work at noon and spend the afternoon in Jacksonville beforehand.

My car was originally sold by Porsche Jacksonville. I didn’t get any service history when I bought the car and I hoped that the Jacksonville dealership would have it. So my first stop was to visit the Service department. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any records after the initial sales preparation. I did buy a shirt in the shop, so I didn’t leave empty-handed.

Continue reading Cars, Beers, and Books

Steve Berry at The BookMark

The title of this post should really be “Joseph Finder and Steve Berry at The BookMark” but Steve Berry was the person I went to The BookMark bookstore to see although he was not the reason for the event. But I didn’t know that until the day of the book signing. The event was a stop on the book tour of Joseph Finder, a writer I was not familiar with before this night.

I started reading Steve Berry novels after finding one while browsing the Leisure Books collection at Hunt Library. I didn’t know who he was, but the title The Patriot Threat and its story involving a conspiracy surrounding a painting of George Washington and the 16th Amendment intrigued me. I really enjoyed the fast-paced story interspersed with historical facts and conspiracies. After reading, I learned that this novel was the tenth book in the Cotton Malone Series. I decided to start reading the series from the beginning and soon bought The Templar Legacy. I have read and enjoyed all of the Cotton Malone novels and short stories.

Website Recommendation: BookBub

Generally I prefer to buy print books rather than ebooks. However, I own a NOOK ebook reader and I do buy ebooks, especially when I can find them at a low price. For discounted ebooks I use BookBub.

BookBub finds heavily discounted ebooks, audiobooks, and even print books. While I buy all my ebooks from Barnes & Noble, BookBub links to ebooks from all major retailers: Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google, and Kobo. In the BookBub settings, you can choose the formats you want and also the retailer(s).

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics

The Oxford Handbook of the History of Physics edited by Jed Z. Buchwald and Robert Fox

ISBN-13: 9780199696253
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: January 1, 2014

View the publisher’s page for this title.

View details and find a place to buy or borrow at Google Books.

Reading note: Started on May 19, 2017 and finished on March 15, 2019.

When this beautiful and hefty book arrived in my office in May 2017, I knew I had to read it. I enjoy reading history and I also have an interest in modern physics. One of these two interests was satisfied by this book, but the other was left disappointed. I set the book aside many times to read other books, which is why it took so long before I finished it.

Jeeves and Wooster Collection

I have long been a fan of P. G. Wodehouse and his Jeeves and Wooster series. In the US it was always difficult to buy these books—even though most of the stories were published here, sometimes before the UK release. I already owned Life with Jeeves, a compilation of three books: The Inimitable Jeeves; Very Good, Jeeves!; and Right Ho, Jeeves. But the only other Jeeves book I found in stores was The Jeeves Omnibus, a compilation of Carry On, Jeeves; The Inimitable Jeeves; and Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves which I didn’t buy because I already had one of the three titles.

Late last year (2015) I decided to spring for the entire set from the UK. I already had compiled a list of titles and so I signed on to Amazon UK one evening. Ordering was easy and the books were due to be “dispatched” in short order for a January 2016 delivery. I chose to have the books shipped together to save money. The entire order cost £173.53 (£121.70 plus £51.83 shipping) or $271.29 for 16 books. Worth every pound and pence. Continue reading Jeeves and Wooster Collection