Verbisaurus Blogicus

This is a list of all books I read in 2013. To be eligible for the list,I merely had to finish reading the book this year. So, for example, if a book has 500 pages, and I read 490 of them back in 2012, and finished up the final ten pages this year, it still counts for 2013. Oh, and I’m only counting books that I have read for the first time. A book must have a minimum of 48 pages to qualify for the list.

The column labeled “Reason” provides the reason why I read the book. There are five possible entries in this column:

1. Class. This means the book was assigned to me in a class at my university, and I had to read it.

2. Kids. This means I read the book to my son (and possibly) my daughter.

3. Review. This means I read the book with the idea of reviewing it for our local paper, or with the intention of interviewing the author during an episode of Atheists Talk, or (in one case) because it’s a book I wrote and I needed to check for errors one more time.

4. Work. This means I read the book for my current “day job”.

5. FTHOI. This stands for “For the Hell of It,” because, let’s face it, every once in a while I do read a book simply for my own enjoyment or to learn how to improve on something in my own personal life.

In 2012, I read at least one book with a title from each letter of the alphabet. This year, I didn’t quite do that – no books on this list beginning with J, O, X, Y, or Z. Sigh. On the up side, the 55 books I read this year bring my total number of books to 960. This is great news because, for over twenty years now, I’ve had this goal of reading 1,000 books. Since 1997, I’ve been averaging 47 books a year – so there’s a very real possibility I will achieve this longed-for goal in 2014. Wish me luck!

TITLE	PAGES	AUTHOR	REASON
1776	294	McCullough, David	FTHOI
11/22/63	852	King, Stephen	FTHOI
2013 Saint Paul Almanac, the	398	compilation	FTHOI
Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800	288	Ferling, John	FTHOI
Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, the	176	Pilkey, Dav	Kids
America’s Hidden History	312	Davis, Kenneth C.	FTHOI
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic	304	Ellis, Joseph J.	FTHOI
Artist View, an	134	Videen, Arthur	FTHOI
As a Man Thinketh	56	Allen, James	FTHOI
Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream	244	Ehrenreich, Barbara	FTHOI
Black, White, Blue: The Assassination of Patrolman Sackett	252	Swanson, William	Review
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex	320	Roach, Mary	FTHOI
Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, a	74	Ibrahim, I. A.	FTHOI
Brothers and Keepers	252	Wideman, John Edgar	Class
Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede	192	Denton, Bradley	FTHOI
Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers	224	Pilkey, Dav	Kids
Dark Day in the Deep Sea (Magic Tree House #39)	116	Osborne, Mary Pope	Kids
Deliverance at Hand!: The Redemption of a Devout Jehovah’s Witness	340	Zimmerman, James	Review
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, the	448	Larson, Erik	FTHOI
Doggy Dung Disaster & Other True Stories: Regular Kids Doing Heroic Things Around the World, the	176	Sundem, Garth	Kids
Elephants of Style, the	240	Walsh, Bill	FTHOI
Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be	56	Loxton, Daniel	Kids
Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy, the	314	Gerhardt, Michael J.	FTHOI
Good Night for Ghosts (Magic Tree House #42), a	116	Osborne, Mary Pope	Kids
House at Pooh Corner, the	180	Milne, A. A.	Kids
Human	512	compilation	FTHOI
Inferno	464	Brown, Dan	FTHOI
Infidel Body-Snatcher and the Fruits of His Philosophy: The Life of Dr. Charles Knowlton, an	264	Allosso, Dan	Review
Intersex and Identity	216	Preves, Sharon E.	Review
Killing Lincoln	336	O’Reilly, Bill / Dugard, Martin	FTHOI
Knight at Dawn (Magic Tree House #2), the	72	Osborne, Mary Pope	Kids
Let the Specter-Detecting Begin (Ghost Hunters #1)	186	Enderle, Dotti	Kids
Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations, the	306	Berlin, Ira	Class
Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, the	330	Winchester, Simon	FTHOI
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks	304	Jennings, Ken	FTHOI
Mercy, a	198	Morrison, Toni	Class
Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House #8)	74	Osborne, Mary Pope	Kids
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void	334	Roach, Mary	FTHOI
Psycho	208	Bloch, Robert	FTHOI
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood	204	Benedictus, David	Kids
Revivalism, Social Conscience, and Community in the Burned-Over District: The Trail of Rhoda Bement	182	Altschuler, Glenn C. / Saltzgaber, Jan M.	Class
Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot	104	Pilkey, Dav	Kids
Road Less Traveled, the (25th anniversary edition)	318	Peck, M. Scott	FTHOI
Seventh-Day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement	200	London, Samuel, G.	Class
Sleepy Hollow Sleepover	138	Roy, Ron	Kids
Survival Schools	312	Davis, Julie L.	Review
Treasure Island	276	Stevenson, Robert Louis	FTHOI
Twelve Years a Slave	172	Northup, Solomon	Class
U.S. Presidents: The Oval Office All-Stars! (Basher Books)	112	Green, Dan	FTHOI
Unstrung Harp, the	64	Gorey, Edward	FTHOI
Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House #13)	84	Osborne, Mary Pope	Kids
Voice-of-the-Customer Marketing	252	Roman, Ernan	Work
War of the Worlds, the	238	Wells, H. G.	FTHOI
White House White-Out	138	Roy, Ron	Kids
Women, Race & Class	276	Davis, Angela Y.	Class

When I left work on Friday, December 20th, it was to be ten days until I returned to work. In between, I had nine days of no work, and almost no travel. Judging from the conversations of my co-workers, most of them travel for the holidays, beit an hour drive into Wisconsin, or across country.

I’m happy to report I don’t have to travel for the holidays. Unless I’m leaving to go to a state I’ve never been to before, then I don’t want to go anywhere. In fact, I did so little traveling for the holidays that, after returning home from my in-laws’ on Christmas Eve, I went a full five days without getting into a car. It’s not that I didn’t go anywhere – I ventured to the gas station on Xmas Day, then to a pizza shop on Friday, then made a quick dash to this local grocery store for aluminum foil – but all those trips were purely of the walking sort. My streak was finally broken this morning, Monday, December 30th, when I hopped into my carpooler’s vehicle.

So, apart from mundane errands, what does a person do with nine days off of work, including six days (21st, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th) of no car travel? Glad you asked.

I made some more headway on Isla’s room. First, Jennifer and I hung this shelf:

We hung it crooked the first time, which is immensely frustrating, because it’s nearly impossible to correct a shelf that’s a half inch from being level. I drilled a new hole (sufficiently far from the first one), then had to spackle the first hole, sand, re-spackle, re-sand, then paint. Then, at last, the shelf was ready to be hung.

Speaking of shelf frustrations…I hung this shelf in Owen’s room for, like, the fifth time:

The shelf is from IKEA so, needless to say, it’s a complete pain in the ass. The shelf kept pulling away from the wall. I always screwed one side of the shelf into a stud, but the shelf is less than a foot across and, let’s face it, studs are not that close together. So one side was always anchored into nothing more than sheetrock. I devised what I’ll call “Plan E” this time: L-brackets! Look closely and you’ll see the shelf is now bracketed to the wall. I pulled out leftover paint and brushed a coat onto the brackets so they’re not that obvious. Let’s see how well this holds. “Plan F” will consist of sawing a shelf-sized hole into the wall and wedging the shelf into the hole so that it’s only protruding about an inch.

I also lathered a few coats of polurethane on Isla’s door frame:

Sorry the frame is so dark, but when I took the picture, there was this brilliant light entering her room from this enormous ball of supercharged plasma not more than eight light-minutes from the window. Anyway, trust me, the frame is now poly’d. Also, see that piece of wood and those screws sitting on the floor to the left of her door? Those are the reducer (a threshold that seques from the hallway’s carpeting to her room’s wood flooring) and the parts for the door latch, respectively, which I installed later, after the planet turned away from that ball of plasma.

Jennifer and I hung her door last night, too. She still lacks a doorknob, though, but at least now we can close the door when she’s sleeping to give her more quietness.

I built and painted this book shelf for Isla’s room, too:

 The wood and screws were leftovers from previous projects, and the paint, as you can probably tell, is leftover from painting the room’s trim. I actually ran out of paint but, thanks to my skillful arrangement of dolls, you can’t tell from this photo. Regardless, how awesome is this? A free wood book shelf! My nerdy kids hand-selected the books to place on the shelf (Isla actually owns approximately quadruple the number of books you see here, but most will remain in the toy room for now.)

And as long as we’re discussing cost-effective handiwork, now’s a good time to show you that I built this:

Yep, now Owen has a pencil holder, named Osz, on his desk.

And, as long as the polyurethane was out and about, I slathered a couple coats on some Xmas ornaments from yesteryear. Jennifer creates an Xmas ornament from a cross-section of each year’s tree. Here’s an example:

The one you see here is the newest one – this slice of wood is all that remains from 2012’s tree. Anyway, it’s got polurethane on it, so hopefully it will last for years to come.

In the woodworking department, I also made significant headway on a gnome house for Isla’s room. I don’t have a picture to show you here, ’cause there’s not much to see yet. But here’s the deal: You know those access panels to get to the plumbing behind tubs? Well, our access panel happens to be in Isla’s room. So, I figured, why not cut a hole in it and build a little house behind it? Jennifer ordered a really cool gnome door, and I’m cutting a hole to the matching size. Behind this door will be a carpeted, full lit, 12×12 gnome house. I hope she appreciates how awesome her room is going to be. But, since she’s a kid, she probably won’t.

Jennifer ordered this 8×10 of our daughter at Minnehaha Falls this past autumn, and Owen’s third grade pictures arrived, so we framed them. I had to unearth the frame for Isla’s picture from our basement (where we have a surprising smattering of dry goods). The frame for Owen’s picture was already in the dining room, ’cause it had his second grade photo in it. It was just leaning agains the wall, though, so this week, I took the opportunity to hang them on the wall. Like Isla’s shelf (see above), I initialy hung her picture incorrectly. Thankfully, I fixed it, and now there’s an extra hole in the wall (but at least this time, it’s covered by the frame).

I also kept up with snow shoveling, washed lots of dishes, imported some videos from digital tape onto an external harddrive, and worked on my model car, as you can see here:

Also in this photo, you can see Owen working on one of his Xmas gifts, which is amazing, because most of his gifts this year came with a label that read “Mom & Dad: This is mostly for you to ‘help’ with!”

Jennifer and I also managed to watch episodes of Six Feet Under, Grimm, and Breaking Bad.

I read this book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, finally, I watched THIS MOVIE and THIS MOVIE and THIS MOVIE.

My current class at the ol’ University is winding down. The full title of the class is “‘The Night the Hogs Ate Willie’: Southern Gothic and Horror in Film and Fiction.” This title seemed to imply a parity between movies and novels (though “fiction” technically embraces the majority of “film”), however, the bulk of the class has involved the film half of this title. We’ve read a few short stories, and a couple of chapters, but no complete novels. This is fine by me – for one thing, I didn’t have to buy any books for this class (although I get reimbursed anyway, so I guess that’s moot), and, for another thing, I love films! Here then, in the order in which we were to watch them, are brief notes on the fourteen feature-length films we were assigned to view for this class:

Nosferatu

Okay, so this flick didn’t fit the “Southern” aspect of the class title (it has nothi

ng to do with America, much less the American South), but I think it was assigned first just to give us an introduction to the origins of horror and gothic films. Nosferatuis an adaptation of the Dracula story. By silent film standards, I found it enjoyable, if a little slow compared to other silents. Many of the tropes found in later horror films can be spotted here. This landmark German film is well worth a view.

Beloved

This Oprah Winfrey vehicle was the longest and most boring film of the semester. Jennifer and I watched it together, and it nearly soured her on watching any of the other assigned films with me. Part of me wants to decry this flick for not having any redeeming qualities, but perhaps it would be more in keeping with the spirit of an English major to simply declare “I didn’t get it.” The first five minutes were cool, though.

Night of the Hunter

I had seen this stylized film noir before. A preacher cons widows into giving him their fortunes, and then he murders them. But this time, he’s met his match…in a couple of young kids. It’s slick, innovative, and suspensful. It’s also deeply flawed, too, something I commented on extensively in class. A fellow student (probably the only student in the class older than this 1955 film) argued that the flaws can be attributed to it being from a simpler time. I politely disagreed; this movie came out after Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and Rear Window – three flicks often cited for being nearly perfect creations. Age is no argument here. Regardless, it was well worth the view. Hell, it’s worth two views, as I can now attest.

Eve’s Bayou

Yeah…this falls into the “I didn’t get it” catergory, too. I fell asleep watching this film, which stars Samuel L. Jackson. I finished watching it the next day, something I probably would not have done had I been watching this simply for my own enjoyment.

Deliverance

Here’s another one I’d already seen. “Dueling Banjos,” squealing like a pig, some sort of environmental message. Disturbing and weird.

Night of the Living Dead

This is one of a few films in the class that I was really looking forward to watching. And it was well worth it! I’m not a fan of zombie stories, but I don’t discount them out of hand, either. This is one of the films that started the zombie craze, and it’s very inventive. Great characterization, unpredictable turns of plot, and a race-relations message to boot. If you haven’t seen it…change that as soon as you can. Heck, watch it right now:

Sugar Hill

I’d never heard of this film before and, appearantly, neither had many of my classmates, as many of them accidentally watched the wrong film. The correct film is this blacksploitation flick from the mid-70s. Not as scary as it probably could have been (the bell-bottoms and huge afros were hilarious), but this vampire film is still a lot of fun to watch.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

So, I often have this Janus-faced drive regarding films: on the one hand, I’m a film-buff, so I try to see all the “important” films. On the other hand, gore and grotesqueness are difficult for me to watch. So, I’m glad this flick was on the syllabus, as that gave me the impetus to finally watch this film. And…it’s really good. I mean, if you’ve seen all those slasher films of the 1980s, then much of Texas Chainsaw Massacre might seem dated, contrived, and even tame. But I haven’t seen those films – which, in fact, derived much from this flick – so the horror was there in all its glory for me. The plot is relatively simple, but it holds, and there’s an intesting subtext of job loss due to automation. Lots of symbolism and foreshadowing, too.

Pumpkinhead

…Speaking of slasher films from the 1980s: The poorly titled Pumpkinhead features a conjured demon that wreaks revenge on a group of youngsters visiting from out of town (a common motif in horror films, I’ve realized). This would have been better had the kids committed a more inexcusable offense; one of them hit and killed a ten year-old with his motorcycle. Sure, that’s terrible, but I didn’t think it made the guy inherently wicked. Overall, a decent but forgettable movie.

Near Dark

Oh, look! Vampires again! Only this time, instead of laughing at the 1970s styles, I was laughing at the 1980s styles. Also – SPOILER ALERT! – vampirism can be cured via a blood transfusion. So that’s good to know. Like Pumpkinhead, your best bet is just to skip this one, too.

The Silence of the Lambs

Here’s another flick I had already seen. Jodie Foster leads, so, for my money, it already

has 9 out of 10 stars before it’s even begun. This was the best movie of the semester and, I think, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.

Wild at Heart

In this film, director David Lynch tried to reference The Wizard of Oz as many times as possible (fifty times is a close estimate). I think it’s funny when one movie references another, because then it runs the risk of having viewers think, “Hey, I’d rather be watching that film.” And, here, that was very true. I think Lynch directed this film by saying, “Lights! Camera! Act Weird!” Again, I just didn’t get it.

The Doe Boy

Here’s a story about a Native American adolescent who tries to win his dad’s approval by going hunting with his dad, but ends up just killing a doe. Oh man, if my son ever did that, I would be so disappointed! “Son, we were supposed to kill a male deer! you killed a female! What are you, a girlie-man?” Also, the boy has hemophilia, which has interesting implications in a hunting-crazed culture and amidst the Cherokee identity with bloodlines. Oh, and his dad is white, so his blood isn’t “pure.” Get it? I gotta say, I think it’s funny how hunters are often depicted as insecure about their manhood and obsessively concerned with proving themselves. Because, well, that’s pretty much what I’ve observed in real life, too. Could you imagine dads being like this in other professions? “Son, I wanted you to be an optician so that I could be proud to call you my son. And all you do is sell bifocals all day! Get out of my house, you pansy-ass!”

Beast of the Southern Wild

We’re supposed to watch this for class next week. I’ve already seen it. I have no plans to watch it again.

I haven’t posted here in a while.

Life has been busy…A book release, a college course, an entrance (and acceptance) into a film festival, lots of home improvements, and an impending vacation have all conspired to keep me busy on top of my normal family and work duties.

I have some fun and interesting ideas (I hope) for future posts, but in the meantime, here’s a filmlet I created that will inform my loyal blog readers of the latest development in our family…

Okay, so here’s a blog post all about my book, which officially releases on October 15th.

My book is titled Deliverance at Hand!, complete with that exclamation point, just to ensure awkwardly punctuated sentences ensue whenever it is mentioned (just like this one). The subtitle is The Redemption of a Devout Jehovah’s Witness. Just the other day, someone asked me what “redemption” means. You can find the answer HERE. The book is 342 pages long, though there are some Roman Numeral pages at the start, and I’m not sure if they count for anything or not.

If you’d like to purchase a copy of the book, the easiest way to go about it is to CLICK THIS LINK. A few people have told me they have issues with Amazon, and a few people have asked me if I have issues with Amazon. I suppose if I dig into the background of any corporation, I’ll have issues with it. But, um, yeah, it’s fine with me…go ahead and buy it from Amazon.

But if that really bothers you, perhaps you’d rather buy it from Barnes and Noble? If so, CLICK THIS, and revel in your smug superiority.

Another option is to buy it from Minnesota Atheists’ website. If you do, a portion of your payment will go toward that organization.

The book will also be available at a few bookstores, but I don’t know which ones, so go look around if you want to and let me know.

I’m going to give a presentation at the Minnesota Atheists’ monthly meeting on Sunday, October 20th. It’s in the afternoon, at Hayes Community Center in Apple Valley. CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT THE DETAILS. And if you’re the kind of person who prefers to sit at home on Sundays and watch men run around with a “ball” for about five minutes over the course of three-and-a-half hours, don’t worry, the Vikings are not playing this Sunday.

If you’d like to learn more about the book prior to purchasing it, you can check out my interview on The Thinking Atheist. This is a lengthy podcast, so if you just want to hear my segment, scroll over to the 8-minute mark. Actually, the interviewer was more interested in finding out about Jehovah’s Witnesses in general than about my book, so there’s actually not too much about my book in this interview.

Another option is to watch my interview on Atheists Talk:

I was also recently interviewed on the Geeks Without God podcast. Here’s a LINK TO THAT INTERVIEW. They really liked the book, at one point comparing it to a novel (which they assured me was high praise). We also talked about Northern Exposure, Mozart and the Whale, and Panera sandwiches.

If you don’t have time to slog through a podcast, then here’s something that will take you less than a minute (I hope!) to read. It’s a review of the book from Library Journal:

Minnesota-native Zimmerman (editor, Minnesota Atheist Newsletter) grew up a devout Jehovah’s Witness but slowly began doubting his faith until he became convinced that the God of his religion and the Bible does not exist. In young adulthood, he devoted hundreds of hours to service and was regularly called upon to give talks and be a leader at his Kingdom Hall. His personal experiences and struggles during these years form the basis for this glimpse into the everyday life of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses. Unlike Jocelyn R. Zichterman, author of I Fired God, Zimmerman did not experience abuse; he simply began questioning the dogmatism he had been taught as he witnessed double standards, inconsistency, and illogical thinking by leaders within the “balsam of Gilead” (New World Translation of the Bible). A memoir, his book does not attempt to cover what the Watchtower Society believes and teaches but simply relates his personal understanding and experiences. VERDICT An optional purchase for most libraries, accounts like Zichterman’s, mentioned above, or Lauren Drain’s Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church.—Ray Arnett

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