So...it's complicated.
Before the end of last year, no later than December, after long and difficult debate, I decided that the honored spot of #1313 on my list of every book I can verify reading and keep a record numbered by order read, should belong to none other than that great American author Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. I had read some of his works but no complete collections.
What
really sealed it was discovering an audio recording with about five hours of Poe readings by Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price and a one-man show by Vincent Price, all available on YouTube so I didn't even have to bloody buy anything, just figure out something which could be done while listening. (Contents listed here)
https://stephenking.com/xf/index.ph...contents-because-desperate-help-thanks.19916/
I washed and folded a number of items to mend, but my right hand was absolutely KILLING me. I had a doctor appointment in December but when I went the doctor said there was no time to give me cortisone shots. I made a second appointment in January but had to cancel when I realized I had an appointment at the same time with a different doctor. I made a third appointment which they cancelled because the doctor who gave the shots was gone that day and the person on duty didn't give those shots. Finally I begged with tears in my eyes, so on freaking January 8 a different doctor plunged a needle right into a couple of nerves on the most painful part of the hand and it hurt like bloody hell. This stopped the pain in the joints of the palm enough for me to realize how much the fingers hurt.
Meanwhile I still had to make a firm decision on book #1312. I was inclined to choose
The Jungle Book, Volume 2, because I had already read much of
The Jungle Book in preparation for reading
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I intended to read this when it came out about a decade ago, but then it went and won the Newbery award so it had to be shoved back on the queue behind all the other Newbery books I hadn't read yet as I had vowed to read every freaking one in order or perish in the attempt (and several proved injurious though not fatal). Another thing about which I feel bad is I read
EVERY FREAKING WORD of
EVERY GOLD MEDALIST and a good many honor books
MYSELF,
NO anyone reading to me including audiobooks, no matter how difficult and painful the process, only Neil Gaiman made a recording of himself reading
The Graveyard Book I really,
really wanted to hear and I finally decided I would risk the guilt of breaking the rule this once so I do have the recording but I still had to read all the other damn books first.
As of now, just one is standing in the way but it's a doozy,
Good Masters, Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz. It's not very long, but I know from experience that a book does not have to be long to be painful; just of Newbery medalists after 2003 there were several I barely tolerated and some I hated as well as a few previous bad ones. I also read that this one is so difficult that it could scarcely be read by the age group for which it is intended without a teacher's help, meaning I would have trouble with it, as much of the time I am scarcely able to manage anything above fourth grade level. Other reason against even attempting it before the Poe is I vowed to read a Poe collection before his 210th birthday on January 19, and didn't dare put anything potentially difficult first as I know from bitter experience how painfully long it takes to read a book when I fall asleep every three pages. I went through this with every Harry Potter book from the fourth or fifth one on. I didn't dare join any Potter discussions all those years as even the movies were perpetually ahead of me.
I was still on the fence on the Kipling, in part because as I learned while listening to audiobooks (you
didn't think I was going to
read the print versions!) that our personal copies of
The Jungle Books Vol. 1 and Vol 2. were
not at all the same as
The Jungle Book and
The Second Jungle Book. Our copies, from Doubleday, wisely collect all the Mowgli stories (which I
had read, and counted on the list) in Volume 1 and the non-Mowgli stories (some of which I have
not read) in Volume 2, while the original publications had some of each. (In the thread listing the Poe collections contents I'll list the contents demonstrating how I have
actually read
neitherJungle Book.) Contents listed here:
http://forums.abebooks.com/discussi...Forum/_/_/abecom/34375.137?dbg=6&nav=messages I was 99% sold on the Kipling but just learned that the man had the extreme good sense and immense courtesy to die on January 18 so there
THAT is!
To further complicate things, we were expecting a few days of good weather so I had not enough excuse left to not work outside no matter how much there was to do inside or that there were deadlines. Was all ready to do so but when I woke up on Friday felt like a bag of crud--dizzy and in no shape to either go outside or attempt to read or work on anything and was in no mood for Poe or even Kipling, so nothing got done that day. A lot of Saturday and Sunday were spent trying to nail down a specific Poe collection. I needed one with contents as closely matching the recordings as possible without going too far under or over. I don't mind reading a few non-recorded items but not to a ridiculous extent, which is why a complete works won't do (which I actually do have, but haven't come across yet). The one selected for the PBS Big Read would have been an easy out, but [the mighty and all-wise, all-knowing, or so he claims] Alberich [of the AbeBooks forums] objected to its omitting "The Gold Bug." Like a stopped clock, Alberich was right that time, as "The Gold Bug" is among the recordings. I picked another collection the right length which did have it, but I didn't like that either as it's a crappy paperback filled with all kinds of educational gobbledygook and I just want the poems and tales with maybe an introduction and pictures but no additional crap.
After checking about every damn Poe collection everywhere, I found a beautiful possibility, about the right length (250 pages as opposed to 500), published by Barnes and Noble with an introduction by Neil Gaiman and illustrations by Mark Summers.
All I wanted to know was the contents to determine how close it might be to the recordings. Alas, all my efforts were in vain! I searched every source and all I could find was the publisher's description of how great the book is without telling you
what's IN the bloody book! I couldn't even search the Library of Congress online catalog because of the stupid government shutdown! I figured Neil Gaiman must have at least
one fan who collected everything he ever did, so I posted on his Facebook page and official message board politely asking, and nothing. As this book was the same price on eBay as the crummy paperback and time was getting short, I decided to take my chances and order it.
Another thing I had to do was contact anyone else I hadn't already about reading my Ray Bradbury biography in time to have it submitted to publish for his centenary. Got that done and was just feeling better when I learned Bradbury's third daughter very suddenly and unexpectedly died, a sad occurrence for which I feel somewhat responsible.
Finally sat down, had a long talk with myself, and realized I could probably handle Kipling and mending, or Poe and other projects, but Poe and mending would be
toomuch. (My reason for procrastinating besides feeling crappy and not liking any of the print collections.) It occurred to me that the other reason besides my right hand killing me that things aren't getting done is I need a flat surface for most projects, the only tables large enough to be of use are in earshot of the TV, my mom watches TCM 24/7, and much of the time they show films I wouldn't want to be caught dead even hearing let alone seeing. So I decided to do something, took a small portable folding table which has been sitting around since a nice lady gave me it last summer or summer before last, and scrubbed it. Of course TCM taunted me by showing a bunch of movies I might actually
like for once, but I studiously ignored it. That's my excuse so far.
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