{"id":404,"date":"2008-02-13T11:42:20","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T17:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2008\/02\/13\/book-em-benno\/"},"modified":"2008-02-14T01:27:05","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T07:27:05","slug":"book-em-benno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/book-em-benno\/","title":{"rendered":"Book &#8217;em, Benno"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><small>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hawaii_Five-O\" title=\"I had forgotten what TV show it was from\" target=\"_blank\">Book &#8217;em, Danno<\/a>&#8221; is a stick-in-your-brain phrase<\/small><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve no memory for this. A book is mentioned and I&#8217;ll remember if I&#8217;ve read it, and how long ago, and whether it was paper or audio, as I also &#8220;read&#8221; about 1 1\/2 books a month on CD while commuting. (There&#8217;s no best verb for drinking in a recorded book so &#8220;reading&#8221; when it&#8217;s being read to you will have to do.) Yet I enjoy seeing other people&#8217;s book lists; click <a href=\"http:\/\/nwanews.com\/adg\/Editorial\/213093\" title=\"The Year in Books by George Arnold\" target=\"_blank\">here for<\/a> one and <a href=\"http:\/\/nwanews.com\/adg\/Perspective\/211604\" title=\"Best Books of 2007 by Kane Webb\" target=\"_blank\">here for<\/a> another. It&#8217;s a less obnoxious habit than checking out a home library during a party, which doesn&#8217;t stop me.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this is an application of the Golden Rule, the sunny positive one that&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/12\/05\/a-hawkeye-on-values\/\" title=\"Try the Gold-plated Rule. It's tasty on toast.\" target=\"_blank\">supposedly superior<\/a>. It&#8217;s actually disguise for &#8220;it&#8217;s all about me me me.&#8221; The writer who writes for himself rather than for the market is taught, because it&#8217;s the only way to write well, &#8220;If I&#8217;m interested in the subject, others will be.&#8221; The world is big enough &#8212; probably just Fayetteville is big enough if not my cul de sac &#8212; for that to be true. Hence a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.randomhouse.com\/golden\/\" title=\"I'm a Seuss and Sendak man, myself.\" target=\"_blank\">Golden Books<\/a> Rule: If a book strikes me well, then some readers may be interested in it, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Brick<\/strong> now will offer <a href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/category\/bloggity-blog\/mr-boo-klist\/\" title=\"category in blog\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. Boo Klist<\/a>, my book list but named<!--more--> after my dad&#8217;s pet name for me, Mr. Boo. I will offer general links to books mentioned, but not to Amazon or anything like that. You know where you like to buy books. Maybe it&#8217;s a second-hand shop. Maybe you go for the ooh-la-la chairs and coffee of Billions of Books in a Barn (Barnes &amp; Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Hastings). Maybe you love online shopping for price and convenience. Maybe you support your local independent bookstore. Don&#8217;t forget the library.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is this short-term memory. I know what I&#8217;ve got open now:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The Gum Thief<\/em> by Douglas <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coupland.com\" title=\"sophisticated site of a multitalented guy\" target=\"_blank\">Coupland<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>The Art of Column Writing<\/em> by Suzette <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ipgbook.com\/showbook.cfm?bookid=1933338261\" title=\"Insider Secrets from Buchwald, Barry and even me.\" target=\"_blank\">Standring<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I just grabbed <em>No Country for Old Men<\/em> by Cormac <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/archive\/2005\/07\/25\/050725crbo_books\" title=\"A thoughtful review\" target=\"_blank\">McCarthy<\/a> from the Fayetteville Public Library; if I&#8217;m not seeing the acclaimed movie any time soon, then why not its source?<\/li>\n<li>Oh, that&#8217;s right: The last recorded book before the current one, <em>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ew.com\/ew\/article\/0,,317707,00.html\" title=\"Google says this was made into a movie.\" target=\"_blank\">Innocent<\/a><\/em> by Ian McEwan, was<\/li>\n<li>The terrific <em>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/19856\" title=\"a review\" target=\"_blank\">Road<\/a><\/em>, the first book of McCarthy&#8217;s I&#8217;ve ever read or &#8220;read.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m prevented from listing my 2007 titles, or just a select few, because nearly all of my reading and listening comes from the library, and I am not allowed access to my own records. Below is an email on this.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>From: Fayetteville Public Library Questions<br \/>\nDate: Wednesday, October 3, 2007 1:19 PM<br \/>\nSubject: RE: Ask us message to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faylib.org\/index.asp\" title=\"I razz them because I love them\" target=\"_blank\">Fayetteville Public Library<\/a> System<br \/>\nDear Ben,<br \/>\nArkansas State Law prohibits the library from keeping records of the books you have checked out in the past. That option in your Patron Account cannot be activated, even if you specifically request it. We apologize! Some of our patrons keep their checkout receipts for future reference.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m miffed about this. After all, by federal law everyone has access to their credit rating; privacy laws govern what others have access to. The individual should know what records are kept; the library claims it is required to delete them. You think? -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Book &#8217;em, Danno&#8221; is a stick-in-your-brain phrase I&#8217;ve no memory for this. A book is mentioned and I&#8217;ll remember if I&#8217;ve read it, and how long ago, and whether it was paper or audio, as I also &#8220;read&#8221; about 1 1\/2 books a month on CD while commuting. (There&#8217;s no best verb for drinking in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mr-boo-klist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2232,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/09\/a-blogs-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":0},"title":"A Blog&#8217;s Purpose","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Book Report: A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. The novel A Dog's Purpose is the best book written by a dog I have ever read. No, that's not quite true. The book actually is written by the spirit of a dog. It's the best book I've ever read by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":1},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3146,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/making-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":2},"title":"Making Book","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Here it is September, and not only that but mid-September, and I have not posted my periodic list of books absorbed. This will be the second year I have attempted a complete list of books. Some I read, some I hear, as CD sets in the car while commuting. January\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1339,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/audio-stunts-your-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":3},"title":"Audio Stunts Your Growth","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Web site of the town stacks, Fayetteville Public Library, offers to e-mail patrons about new arrivals. A couple of months ago I signed up for the non-musical recordings notification to help me grab new book-on-CD titles. The shelves increasingly are picked over every time I stop by, at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/03\/a-driving-walking-ramble\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":4},"title":"A Driving, Walking Ramble","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Not every book works well as an audio. If it's adequate, it may not be a successful work-commute diversion. For most of eight years, I've had a long-enough drive (20 minutes one way) where audio books are more satisfying than, public radio. Spoken word holds the attention better than even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technical Difficulties&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/12\/4th-quarter-no-overtime-soon-overdue\/","url_meta":{"origin":404,"position":5},"title":"4th Quarter, No Overtime, Soon Overdue","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A final book list will close the 2010 year of Brick. After years of not starting then false starts, I resolved last January to keep a list of books on the home computer. It's a vanity project -- well, both the list and Brick are -- but it's been instructive:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}