Category Archives: General

Scaling Mount Doom: September 2020

Posted on October 1, 2020 by smellincoffee

Beginning last month, I decided to start doing a monthly ‘face-the-verdict’ post  to help me stay focused on my TBR takedown, and the related goal of further minimizing my book collection. This month bears witness to the fact that I’m … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Favorite Quotes

Posted on September 29, 2020 by smellincoffee

Top ten favorite quotations from books is a…daunting challenge,  to say the least. I’ve been reading purposefully since 2006,  and have encountering a great many challenging or insightful words since then. I am sorry that these all run together,   but … Continue reading →

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Corona diary with extra corona

Posted on September 24, 2020 by smellincoffee

This update is a bit different because I’m typing on my phone. I’m making arrangements now for a 2 week quarantine. Unfortunately, I have the plague. It’s a mild thing — I would not have thought to test for it … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Books on my Fall TBR

Posted on September 22, 2020 by smellincoffee

This week for Top Ten Tuesday, we’re sharing our fall reading lists!   In my case, it’s a literal fall TBR: I’m currently diligently working on my Pile of Doom, complete with scheduled titles and the like,  with other materials mixed … Continue reading →

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Quick note

Posted on September 15, 2020 by smellincoffee

The gulf’s hurricanes have been ignoring Alabama for a couple of years now, hitting states on either side of us. I can’t say that we mind, but the windy hiatus is over. One is expected to roll in tomorrow right … Continue reading →

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Classics Club Run I: Final List

Posted on September 9, 2020 by smellincoffee

The Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. Danny Jackson (12/4/2016) The Aeneid, Virgil (2/20/2019) The Histories, Herodotus (10/3/2019) The Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar (2/05/2019) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I, Edward Gibbon (09/02/2019) One Thousand and One … Continue reading →

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Classics Club….FINALE!

Posted on September 8, 2020 by smellincoffee

Yesterday, I finished The Brothers Karamazov, and, with that last page, completed  the Classics Club challenge.   I began the challenge in September 2015, and pecked away until late  2018, when I realized I had two years left and over half … Continue reading →

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Scaling Mount Doom: August 2020

Posted on August 30, 2020 by smellincoffee

At the end of July I hit on an idea for reconciling my growing TBR Pile of Doom with my  intractable hunger for more books:  for every four TBR books I read, I’d allow myself to buy one book.  In … Continue reading →

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Reading on the Road: Shiloh’s Bloody Hill

Posted on August 17, 2020 by smellincoffee

“The world was suddenly out of kilter, as though the beauty of the bright Tennessee sunrise was merely a prelude to death, and that nature, with all her morning splendor, was mocking mankind’s folly.” – Winston Groom, Shiloh 1862. During … Continue reading →

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COVID has infected my gaming

Posted on August 9, 2020 by smellincoffee

Between the corona chill and the sweltering heat outside, I haven’t been doing much out-and-abouting with friends  —  I had a close circle who I was seeing every weekend, but  now it’s more of a every two-weeks kind of thing … Continue reading →

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