Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Back Nine--#43 finished

I hadn't expected to finish this book so quickly but I read some over the trip to NE & then polished it off last night & today. It is a pretty good read for a golf book. Much more enjoyable and less out there than Bagger Vance. The whole out there of Bagger Vance being a supernatural being that can see things in completely different ways or something like that really ruined that book for me. The movie was much better. This was just a root for the underdog golf book a good read. Not sure if the author has written anything else but will probably check to see.

I have already posted it on PBS & there are 6 copies ahead of it so not moving anytime soon. Not sure if I will be starting a 3rd book right away, I really need to spend some time on Boy A & The Passage since they have been pushed back by each new book I start reading.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Double Down--#42 finished

A quick read, I had just started it last weekend & finished it up today. A good book, nothing too serious, nothing to really think about, just a nice read with everything laid out for you. Not sure if I would really call it chic lit though but if not it is still not far off. I liked the gambling stuff in the book. The main character Skye, for being a smart lady, really wasn't very smart in many ways but oh well. The book was a quick read so couldn't really stop and clean up all of her parts.

I have already posted it on PBS & there are 9 copies a head of it so it won't be moving anytime soon. I did go ahead and post 1959 and it went out in the mail today. Still reading The Passage and Boy A and will look around for a 3rd book tonight but not sure if I will start one yet.

Friday, July 22, 2011

1959: The Year Everything Changed--#41 finished

A very good and interesting book about many important things that occurred in 1959. The Beat poets, changes in Jazz and music, art, inventions in electronics, the Pill, race relations, Cold War happenings, Castro & Cuba, space and on and on. Everything was presented in very easy to read and interesting chapters. It truly was an interesting time to live, the US and the world right before the counter-culture of the 1960s and where many of the seeds of the '60s started here in 1959. I also liked that it touched on many topics that I don't have much knowledge in like the Beat generation and Jazz for instance. I will highly recommend this book.

I will probably be posting it on PBS at some point in the near future but might wait until I have a 2nd book to mail. I am at 31 credits with 4 other books out there that I have mailed that would build me up to 35. Again I would like to spend it down some but just keep sending some off. Oh well. I am still working on The Passage and Boy A and just started a much lighter book Double Down a kind of chic lit book I guess. I doubt I will start a fourth book right now but again who knows.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Running & Disc Golf

Well to type up something besides the books I have read, let's talk about my running first. I am still at it but it is hot and I am not very inspired. I have been getting some runs in though other than the week before and then during vacation. This week I have gotten two 2 mile runs in, I know short. After the first 2 mile run, I had to come home and mow the lawn. Today was the other 2 mile run but first I went to Play It Again Sports and bought some used Discs for Disc Golf. Then I went to the park and had to throw them around for a while before doing the run and since it was getting late I just did 2 miles. It was a good 2 miles with the first mile at 11:56 and 2nd at 12:04. Those were probably the 2 quickest miles I have run in a long time. Since I knew at the start of my run it was only 2 miles that helped because I did want to run them a little faster and it worked.

Now Disc Golf, I have played 3 rounds so far and it is fun. Like the first round where we found a disc that became mine(called person & he no longer wanted disc), in the 2nd round we also found a disc. This disc was basically brand new and only had initials on it, no name or phone number so it is now mine. My nephew who I have been playing with gave me an extra putter so I have had 3 discs so far. Tonight I bought 3 more at the Play It Again Sports store, they were probably the 3 cheapest discs they had. Altogether they cost like $8.50 including tax but since just starting and not sure type I need I thought they were a good buy. One of them is a putter so now my wife can come along & use some of my discs to get started & see if she would even like the sport.

I practiced Friday and then played Friday night and then practiced again tonight. My arm/elbow is a little sore, it is still getting used to the throwing motion. I have really been throwing much better forehand than backhand, which is surprising since I had never thrown forehand until the first round I played. I will be getting some more rounds in and will probably start actually keeping score as well. Without keeping score though, I know that I have gotten at least a couple pars on each round but I am giving too many shots away on putts and also get sloppy late in the round on the tee shots. All part of the learning process.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Cut to the Quick--#40 finished

This is the 2nd book in the series and it was pretty good. A female detective with a near death experience investigates another murder while at the same time she is haunted and still searching for the man the nearly cut her to death. This investigation was okay, most of the characters were ones that I had a hard time likely but still interesting. I have the 3rd in the series so will probably be reading it at some point soon. This book I had taken along on vacation and had actually started it then so it took a while to finally get it finished.

I have already posted it on PBS but there are something like 50 copies ahead of it so I don't expect it will be moving. At some point once I finish the 3rd one, I might see if my mom wants them or if not, maybe offer all 3 for a credit or two in the PBS book bazaar. It has been slow going in reading the last few weeks for me, I am reading The Passage but not quite 100 pages in and also reading A Boy but only around 30 pages in. I might look to see if there is something else out there to start also but really just not putting much time to it right now.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Wonderful Tonight--#39 finished

This is Pattie Boyd's book about her life and being married to George Harrison and Eric Clapton. I enjoy music to a degree but it is not really that important to me. Growing up in high school it was probably at the high point of my interest, today not so much. I really had no idea who Pattie Boyd was and that she was married to two famous musicians. I also didn't know Wonderful Tonight, a very popular slow song, was written about her by Clapton. Well all that being said she really has lead an interesting life even if the book doesn't really bring that out too much. There is a lot of relationship focus in the book and not so much about why these musicians fell in love with her. I am guessing she just couldn't open up in that way, but that is what I am seeing missing from this work. The main lesson in the book has to be the '60s was great for music but a bad time to be married to a musician if you wanted a stable normal life, they were all sex, drugs and rock & roll literally.

I have posted it on PBS & it is the only hardcopy copy on the system so it should move I would guess soon. I have picked out The Passage as my next book but it is too late to start it tonight.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Shade of the Maple--#38 finished

This was more romance type book than I thought so in a way I was kind of disappointed. The main male character was way too sappy and with unrealistic relationship expectations, I really didn't like the book very much. This is not to say it was all bad, because it wasn't. There were some good parts and such but overall not my kind of book.

Oh well, that is just the way it is. It was a short book so I was hoping for a quick read but it wasn't that either. I have really ignored two of the other books I was reading Cut to the Quick and A Boy. For the last week or so I have been busy so finding reading time has been short anyway and what reading I have done was on Shade & still working on Wonderful Tonight. I hope to have Wonderful Tonight done in next couple of days also. With other two still I don't think I will be adding another one, 4 is really too many books for me to be reading all at once. Two or three seems to be the best number.

Well, I have already posted Shade on PBS but there are 12 copies ahead of it so I don't think it will be moving anytime soon.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

frisbee golf

I had not played frisbee golf until today. It was fun and while I knew I probably wouldn't be very good, I have to see I thought I played decent. I always had a rag arm in baseball and later softball in college and after so I just figured that rag arm would carry over. I think it did to a degree but I did make a couple nice throws. Like regular golf a lot comes down to making your putts, I made a couple nice ones for a couple pars. Generally though I need a lot of work to get to decent overall but it was fun. It was also a decent workout, lots of walking and sweating on a very hot day. The poison ivy in many many places was really the biggest knock against it. I will be playing this again at some point.