A recent visit to the site of Richard Robinson, Tip the Wink, led me to this meme about books and bookshelves and reading experiences created by Judith at Reader in the Wilderness. As I love all things book-related, I simply had to join in. (All images can be clicked on to open a larger version)
For my first Book Traveling post I am venturing to a physical location: my unfinished basement. The myriad shelves and artistic piles of books that reside on the main floor in our home are very neat and orderly. We all have our preferred shelf appearances: mine are filled with books stood upright, neatly packed, featuring new or so-pristine-you-cannot-tell-they’ve-been-read copies of books. Downstairs I keep all my treasured well-loved classic paperbacks as well as stacks of books for which I do not have shelf space.
These two featured shelves (and here I use the idea of a “shelf” liberally, as these are the old kitchen cabinet uppers we tore out of our house years ago, and I use as part of my basement library) showcase books from some of the classic science fiction authors I have grown to love over the years.
One year ago today…or just two posts ago (I am very neglectful of my blog)…I posted on the second anniversary of the death of my friend, Jerry Schattenburg.
I vividly remember receiving a call that Tuesday night, January 24th, 2017. It was a number I did not recognize, and the voice on the other end of the line was a police detective, informing me that Jerry had experienced a heart attack. A neighbor had tried to save him by performing CPR, to no avail. I wish I had know who that was so I could thank them for caring enough to try. Jerry wasn’t tremendously outgoing with his neighbors, so it is quite possible this person did not really even know him, and yet they tried to help.
I mentioned on my Instagram post today that Jerry had passed away “suddenly and unexpectedly”. In truth the sudden part is correct, but while the time of his death was unexpected, the cause of his death was by no means a surprise. He had experienced a massive heart attack prior to my knowing him, and he did not take good care of his health at all. Still, when I had last seen him just a few days prior, I didn’t expect that it would be the last time. As is to be expected, if it had been I would have said so much more.
Last year I shared that Jerry had bought copies of this book at a consignment shop for something like $1 apiece and he read each story, gave it a score on a 10-point scale, and then wrote some small review on the title page of each story. He gifted copies to three of us, his friends, and asked us to do the same. The idea was that we would pass these around and copy each other’s comments so that each book would contain the thoughts of four different people.
Alas, our various reading desires took us in different directions all the time and we never got around to finishing the project. To honor him I read a few of these stories last year. This week I decided to do the same.
These are the stories I read:
“The Only Thing We Learn” by C.M. Kornbluth. Told as a story within a story, a professor imperiously lectures his students about a battle between two people groups, one who is obviously in the right and the other obviously in the wrong. Or are they? Kornbluth’s story cleverly blurs the lines of who is good and who is evil, and how and why societies rise and fall. It is a good story. Not great, but well written and worth reading, particularly as it was written in 1949, at a time when the world had seen the rise and fall of a clearly evil leader and his followers. (My rating, 7/10, Jerry’s rating, 7/10)
“Trigger Tide” by Wyman Guin. I was not familiar with Guin and don’t recall reading any other short stories by him. I liked this one quite a lot. It starts with the protagonist struggling to survive what probably should have been a killing attack and follows him as he goes forth to complete the mission that landed him in this state in the first place. It is well written and imaginative and made me wish he had a longer novel written in this science fiction world of espionage and assassination. (My rating, 8/10, Jerry’s rating 6/10)
“The Aliens” by Murray Leinster. This is a fantastic story about humanity’s search for the only other sentient species they know of to exist in space, and humanity’s tendency towards suspicion and violence as a means of self-preservation. A “shoot first and ask questions later” mentality. The way in which Leinster shines a light on our distrust of others is clear throughout the story, particularly in the case of one particular officer who is assigned to the mission purely because he is a xenophobe and will act decisively should he feel the conditions warrant it. This character reminded me so much of Larry Niven and Edward Lerner’s character Sigmund Ausfaller in their prequel series to Ringworld. Other than a few dated descriptions of the way in which the technology of the human spacecraft functioned, this could have been written today. It’s message is very timely. (My rating, 9/10, Jerry’s rating 9/10).
It did not surprise me that we differed on the one story. What surprised me is that out of three stories we felt the same about two. That was pretty uncommon. Although when we both loved a story, we really loved it.
I miss you dearly, my friend, as I know do the others of our small circle of science fiction loving, book-collecting friends. Thank you for gifting me a love of classic science fiction that was much deeper and more rich than I had when we first met. Thank you for introducing me to authors I had not read, and some I might not have even known about had you not shared them with me (Cordwainer Smith, Fritz Leiber, Keith Laumer, to name a few).
Always tell your friends and family how you feel about them. And do not neglect to make time for yourself to read. Set aside time every day to crack open a book and just read a few pages. And share with those around you about the stories that excite you.
The last two years have found me reading far less than I have in any years since starting a blog in 2005…and far less posting on the blog as well.
Though the numbers are not impressive, I read some truly impressive books this year, stories that I thoroughly enjoyed and would heartily pass on to fellow book lovers.
Foregoing any other preamble, and in no particular order, here are my favorite reads of 2019.
(Click here for a larger version of the image. Image property of Carl V. Anderson)
Tonight after the sun is well and truly down here on a bitterly cold January day, the moment will come that will mark two years since the unexpected death of a long-time friend, Jerry Schattenburg. Two years ago tonight I answered an unfamiliar number to find a detective on the other end of the line, inquiring whether I was familiar with Jerry, if I had a way to connect the detective with next of kin, and then he proceeded to tell me that Jerry had suffered a heart attack, just outside his apartment door. Despite the heroic efforts of a neighbor that really didn’t even know Jerry, he was unable to be resuscitated. He was 63 years old.
The book pictured above is the anthology The World Turned Upside Down, edited by David Drake, Eric Flint, and Jim Baen. The choice of photographing the Table of Contents will be discussed near the end of this post and should make a lot more sense.
“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”
~J.R.R.Tolkien
And here we are, the end of one leg of our life’s journey and the start of a new one. I understand that it is an artificial construct of sorts, that today is no different than yesterday simply because I now have to remember to write an “8” at the end of the year when I date things instead of a “7”, but I welcome opportunities to reset, to reassess, and to recommit to those things that are important.
No resolutions of the standard variety for 2018. Today is simply, though significantly, a day to state once again my priorities and to use this last day of vacation before returning to work to set my feet on a firm foundation towards these priorities.
They are few, but oh so important: Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness. When I set out I hadn’t intended for it to be The Four F’s, but there you go. If 2017 taught me anything, particularly with the recent passing of my mother-in-law, it is that there is something to be said for staying true to those things that are most important. For me that starts and ends with a personal relationship with Jesus. From that foundation my goals for 2017 include making sure that I spend more quality time with family and friends, that I make wise choices with my finances and that I am prayerful and purposeful about addressing the needs of the poor in the giving of my time and my money, and that I am responsible about what I put into my body and what I do with it so that–as far as it depends on me–I am healthy and active for years to come.
My absolute favorite memories of 2017 include:
Playing games with family and friends (particularly over the Christmas holiday)
Sharing our favorite vacation spot with friends as we celebrated his and my wife’s birthdays
Meeting my first grand nephew, Parker
The hard work and resultant joy of helping to put on Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 5
Discovering new Youtube channels that inspire adventure, promote activity, and teach easy but yummy new healthy recipes
Meeting my first grandchild…of the canine variety…Ambrosius (a three year old Great Dane)
The second annual October “Lamberson” camping trip to Knob Noster State Park (much warmer this year)
Running on Landahl Park trails
Seeing the children of friends grow up and continue college, go on missions trips, start their first jobs
Several sitting-around-the-fire nights, chatting and relaxing.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed some good books, movies, and television shows in 2017 (as you can see on my latest Favorites post) and some of those experiences have been wonderful shared experiences with people I love. But the things that stand out, even more so as I get older, are the moments of getting out and doing things and/or spending time with people and just enjoying one another.
2018 will be the year that I see my wife turn 50 (March 21st) and I spend the next 8 months, to the day, harassing her about being older, until I join her at that milestone. I intend to celebrate that birthday with the best spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health I’ve ever had. I have no doubt 2018 is going to have its share of troubles, especially in the world at large, and those things have to be met with faith and courage and trust. There is little I can do to control much of what goes on. I can only attempt to make wise decisions with what I do with my time at work and at home, with the way I use money, and with what I eat and drink and making sure that I do some sort of daily activity, even if it is just a short walk.
That all is very doable. The rest is in God’s hands. I look forward in 2018 to being a better steward with what I have been given.
May we all do the same in 2018.
Happy New Year everyone, I hope my year is filled with news of your joys, victories and triumphs, be they big or small, and I hope I can be there for you in the way you need during those times where life takes an unexpected, and not very welcome, turn.
Whether we are ready or not, it’s 2018. Here we go!
