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Carl N

Carl N

Love reading, music, the arts, travel & (lately) biking. Jobs just get in the way. Have experienced the "animal house" years, lived in the Haight-Ashbury in the late 60's, Iran as a UN volunteer in the 70's & served as a volunteer on-air program host for a weekly, non-commercial, FM listener supported folk music show. Resently retired &... more »
  • Washington, DC
  • member since January 30 2008

Public Notes

 
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Displaying 1-20 of 23 notes
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    Do a friend a favor. Throw some of your recent best books on to the "Favorites" shelf. Or one better, look at my plan to read shelf and make some suggested cuts... or adds. I hope you are doing well and enjoying the fall on your bike. Cicago is getting a little crisp this time of year, but it's my season. I love our fall. Dave

    posted 3 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    2008 Gastoni Award Winners
    By Dave Gaston

    4-5 Stars
    China Road / Rob Gifford
    Dual, The / John Lukacs
    Evolution / Jean-Baptiste De Panafieu
    Long Walk, The / Slavomir Rawicz
    Man Who Loved China / S.Winchester
    Only Yesterday / Fred Allen
    Peace Like A River / Leif Enger

    5 Star Audio Books
    Beatles, The / Bob Spitz
    Kill A Mockingbird, To / Harper Lee
    Outliners / Malcom Gladwell
    Reaching For Glory / Michael Beshloss
    Taking Charge / Michael Beshloss

    3+ Stars
    21; Burning Down House / B Mezrich
    Book Thief, The / Markus Zusak
    Beautiful Mind, A / Sylvia Nascar
    Consider The Lobster / David Wallace
    Living Great Lakes / Jerry Dennis
    Looking for Alaska / P Jenkens
    New World Coming / Nathan Miller
    Three Cups of Tea / Greg Mortenson
    When Engulfed Flames / D. Sedaris
    Your Inner Fish / Neil Shubin

    What does it take to win a Gastoni?
    Well, for starters, you better write a book on a topic I love. Next, your writing style has to be exquisite (to the point of awe and envy). Finally, your story telling has to be transporting. To sum it up, I quote Somerset:

    “When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.”

    On a more personal note, the time I spent reading and listening to books this year was pure escapism. It felt like I spent most of it in a hospital waiting room (which is not true). When I’d start obsessing about my girl Gracie’s cancer I’d crack a book and ride it hard to block the worst of my fears. At night, when I needed to find a path to sleep, I’d take the easy road and escape down a story line. A good book is a gift.

    Our family has so much to be thankful for this year. For starters, Carrie and I have our girl back! She now has about an inch of fine blond hair sticking straight out of her 5 year old head. At school they call her Q-tip. Her teachers call her Q-T-tip. I’ll post a couple holiday pictures of the family up on her website: caringbridge.org/visit/gracegaston

    Your friendship is counted among my many blessings. Merry Christmas to you and your family, My best for the New Year, Dave

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    Thanks Carl. Dave

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    Tiz the Season. I imagine, like me, you give books. My holiday list keeps getting longer and my holiday budget keeps getting smaller. What's a guy to do? Answer: Ask his stellar and sturdy Shelfarians where they place their orders. I order the majority of my books (for my own consumption) via Amazon Used... but I'm not going to gift a used book (tacky, tacky). So, have you found a place that would offer a deep discount for a volume buy? I'd appreciate you passing on the tip. Thanks, Merry Merry, Dave

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Bibliophile!

    Bibliophile! says

    Thank you. It sounds interesting!

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Bibliophile!

    Bibliophile! says

    Hullo,
    What are your thoughts on 'Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War'? I saw it in my bookshop. Worth reading you think?

    Bibliophile

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    Carl, Your shelf is so interesting. Why don't you post some of your favorites? I think you would love the one I just finished, "The Long Walk" Dave

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joy O

    Joy O says

    Hi Carl...I am into JG Farrell as you suggested but his only connection with Ireland appears to be the fact that he moved here shortly before his untimely death. If he had hung around for his alloted span he might just have drowned anyway such are the drenchings we have endured all "summer"! Have just finsihed Mr Pip by LLoyd Jones - it's fiction but has an intersting tie-in with Dickens. Hi Tom!
    Joy

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Ron M

    Ron M says

    Carl....Send me the formula for finding the reading time
    I need!!!
    The play on the Krakauer title was ingenious...have you spent time in Death Valley?....it is an experience in astronomical observing that is unsurpassed except maybe in orbit...and to find your way around Furnace Creek at night with no Moon is a great experience...since I do some cycling in Sloth(intended) Florida I think my collection of experiences will be called "Into NO Air!"..hope all is well and write sometime and let me know what's happening..regards Ron (rmurfs@bellsouth.net)

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • patricia g

    patricia g says

    The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind By Julian Jaynes leaves you with many questions- it makes sense that early man heard voices much more clearly than modern man yet we are more analytical.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Will B

    Will B says

    Operators and Things is one of the most enlightening first-person account books I've ever read. The inner journey of a voice-hearer, written in an understandable manner. Published in 1954, reprinted in paperback in the 1960s. bought a marked up paper copy for 35 dollars. Try to get it through inter-library loan.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Will B

    Will B says

    Things I find of interest are varied but these drew my eye in particular:
    Seven Years in Tibet - a book about Pre-China invasion worth the read
    Above San Francisco looks like a book [only "above San Diego"] I found and sent to my brother who lives in San Diego county.
    I wonder about Highway Cafe. Is that is pictorial? Draws to mind an Ed Ruscha book I stupidly sold some years back entitled 26 gas stations
    Never "met" anyone who even heard of "Builders of the Dawn," the book on intentional communities. Nice to see someone else has it

    I'm still gliding through the books you have. But those are starters that drew my eye.

    Will Brady

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • jonnynew

    jonnynew says

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO !!!!

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joy O

    Joy O says

    Hi Carl...Not sure how this site works...still it's an opportunity to say hi to you from a gloomy old Ireland..Have just read an interesting book callled Stoner and it's by John Williams, about a professor at Columbia ...it's an interesting account of how life can stab us in the back if we don't watch out!
    I thought it was very well written indeed although I found the characterisation of the wife really erratic and implausible. Is she an incapable copping out recluse or a vivacious and popular theatre/artist/sculptor?
    However, Stoner himself is an intersting study. See what you think.
    Joy

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Garcon

    Garcon says

    Carl, Thanks for the book reference. I put Rounding the Horn on my Wish List.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jacqueline

    Jacqueline says

    Hosseini-No time for questions? I think I just lost respect for him. I am going to go see the movie No Country For Old Men. Maybe I will read the book first!

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jacqueline

    Jacqueline says

    Carl,
    I saw the movie Kite Runner over the weekend. I liked it, but I do not know if I would have been able to get as much out of it without having read the book first. A friend of mine went with me and she asked me questions about the relationships between the father and the boys. There was a lot left out of the movie. I looked for the relationship between the Taliban and the Nazi, but that was not in it. I loaned the book to a friend and when I get it back I am still going to look that up again. I am glad you pointed it out to me. Have you seen the movie? I ordered the book by Sacks, but I have not received it yet. I will let you know what I think about it after I read it. Did you get a chance to read, A Thousand Splendid Suns?

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Joy O

    Joy O says

    Hi Carl...How are you today? Do you know yet I wonder given it is early your time.
    I am reading McEwan's Atonement ...he is a brilliant psychological observer though maybe we are too busy for that kind of detail. But certainly some of his notes on thoughts, feelings and motivations ring true.
    Off for a ride on the trusty two wheeled steed now.
    \be good Joy in Ireland

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jacqueline

    Jacqueline says

    I would love to be a part of Sack's research team. I find neurobiology fascinating. I added Sack's Anthrolopogist book to my shelf so that I will remember to get it. Unfortunately, it went on the books I read shelf, instead of the books I want to read. Oh well, I will figure it out! :) After I read it, I would like to discuss it!

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jacqueline

    Jacqueline says

    Yes, I like Oliver Sacks. I have read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and Awakenings. I enjoyed reading both of them. The books were well written and the case histories and the illnesses explained in a way that even a lay person could understand them. I heard he had another book called An Anthropologist on Mars. Have you read that one?

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
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Displaying 1-20 of 23 notes


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