BOOKS READ: 2008

It's a night of bitter cold and snow in western Pennsylvania. It's also New Year's Eve, a fitting time to post my list of books read in 2008.

First, the two most memorable books of the year:

No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

Fawn M. Brodie, 499 pages, Vintage Books, 1995

A biography of the Mormon leader. The account of his early life is particularly damaging. Just one example: as a young man, Smith was an avid treasure hunter, making use of a "peep stone." Peeping through his magic stone (it had a hole bored in it), the Prophet could detect treasures buried underground. One fine day, he found golden tablets. As for his womanizing .... how did the Mormon church survive this charlatanry?

Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey

David McCumber, 367 pages, Perennial, 2002

This appears to be a very realistic account of what it's like to be a professional pool player. Interestingly, most of the work is done in shabby venues in run-down parts of town, not at all like the glitzy casino matches I like to watch on TV. My favorite part is a chance encounter with Swedish pool champion Ewa Mataya Laurance. I hope she hasn't lost her TV deal with ESPN.

Now, for my complete list:

[Genre: F = fiction, N = non-fiction]

January

Rankin, Ian - Fleshmarket Alley (F )

Dunsany, Alfred Lord - The Charwoman’s Shadow (F)

February
Dolin, Eric Jay - Leviathan (N): this history of whaling made me feel sorry for the whales.

Rankin, Ian - Knots and Crosses (F)

March

King, Stephen - Blaze (F): why do I keep reading this stuff?

Goddard, Robert - In Pale Battalions (F)

April

Bill O’Reilly - Who’s Looking Out for You? (N)

Traditional - Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (F): the Simon Armitage translation. For a useful background piece on Gawaine, visit the University of Rochester's Camelot Project.

Furst, Alan - Dark Star (F): well-written account of a man drawn into espionage in World War II. I seem to recall reading this at at Nemacolin during a trip with Nancy and Megan.

May

McDermid, Val - The Grave Tattoo (F): disappointing.

July
Brodie, Fawn M. - No Man Knows My History (N): see above.

Michell, John - Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions (N)

August

Barker, Clive - The Damnation Game (F): here again, I can't remember what it was about.

O'Dell, Tawni - Sister Mine (F): Worth reading for the Western Pennsylvania setting, but it lacks something compared to her first novel, Back Roads. It's about a woman (closely resembling the author) and her sister. It's also about a coal mine. Thus, the title. The author lives in State College, PA. Maybe I'll run into her this weekend; we'll be there for my birthday.

McCumber, David - Playing Off the Rail - A Pool Hustler's Journey (N): see above.

September
(read all three on a cruise to Bermuda)

Rankin, Ian - Hide and Seek (F)

Golden, Christopher - Straight On 'til Morning (F): The first half was one of the best reading experiences of the year, even though a key plot element owes a huge debt to the film The Lost Boys. It takes a marked turn for the worse in the second half, crossing the line into fantasy and near-silliness.

Cain, James M. - Double Indemnity (F): excellent. I'll have to read The Postman Always Rings Twice soon.

November

LeCarre, John - The Mission Song (F)

Malory, Sir Thomas - Le Morte D'Arthur vol. 2 (F): I bought this in a mall in Houston in the mid-1980s after seeing the film Excalibur. It took a few years, but now I've finished both volumes. One of those rare books that motivated me to get out a pencil and mark my favorite passages.

Groff, Lauren - The Monsters of Templeton (F)

Messud, Claire - The Emperor's Children (F): perhaps the best fiction I read this year.

All in all, a pretty good reading year. Here's to health and peace of mind in the new year. Prospero ano nuevo.

Neon Knights

Years ago, I heard a song on the radio that I couldn’t get out of my brain. I didn’t know the name of the band or the name of the song. All I could remember was two lines:
Ride out, protectors of the realm
Captains at the helm...

My search for that song became a decades-long quest, strewn with false trails and dead ends. I asked several friends if they knew the source of these lines. I also bought two Rush albums in a vain effort to locate that song. It was all in vain.

Now, purely by chance, my odyssey of more than 20 years is ended.

I heard Ronnie James Dio sing those words at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Pavilion Saturday night. The song is Neon Knights by Black Sabbath, from the Heaven & Hell album. It was their encore tune Saturday night! See below for the complete verse, with the lines above in context:

Cry out to legions of the brave
Time again to save us from the jackals of the street
Ride out, protectors of the realm
Captains at the helm, sail across the sea of lights
Circles and rings, dragons and kings
Weaving a charm and a spell
Blessed by the night, holy and bright
Called by the toll of the bell
Bloodied angels fast descending
Moving on a never-bending light

Encounter with KK

The Metal Masters tour rolled through Pittsburgh last Saturday night. That’s what brought my brother and I to the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott before the show. For a full account, laid out better than I could hope to achieve, follow this link:

http://haggisbuffet.blogspot.com/2008/08/encounter-with-kk.html