I’m getting so lazy and to be such a procrastinator that I’m now combining posts so today I bring you a Flashback Friday on a Sunday with the Sunday Salon. Instead of looking back at the week, though, I’m going to look back at the month and through the prism of reading.
For what am I least grateful this past month?
That I didn’t read more books than I did and didn’t even up the number of books I’ve read this year (54) with the number of movies I’ve watched this year (57). I only read five books, with my goal being eight books.
For what am I most grateful this past month?
That I read the five books I did, especially Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang. A friend of mine previously had mentioned reading the Charlie Chan series by Earl Derr Biggers to me and I think that was why I was interested in reading about Chang Apana, the real-life detective on which the fictional detective was based, when I saw the book on our new books shelf at the library. In the eyes of Huang, a defector from China, Charlie Chan is not an Asian Uncle Tom, as some Asian-American critics contend, but was the antithesis of Fu Manchu, the Asian stereotype seen in movies in the 20s and 30s in that Chan used his mind to battle crime.
Now to continue my exploration of Charlie Chan, that friend sent me a box of Chan books plus a pile of mostly mysteries, or what my wife called “nerd porn”. My only disappointment was that he didn’t send me the first and final ones of the series. However, that was something I was able to rectify quickly by ordering both through our local bookstore, From My Shelf Books. I sent a message to one of the owners, Kevin, Wednesday via Facebook and told him I’d like to come in to order it Thursday. Within 20 minutes, he said he already had and by Friday, the books had arrived. I picked up the books yesterday, and at a price cheaper than Amazon. Talk about service.
Needless to say, my reading goal for November will be at least six books, since there are six in the Charlie Chan series.
As for today I probably will read Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell. I discovered the book on Thursday night while doing inventory at the library, one day after receiving the movie in the mail from Netflix. I think I had heard the movie was based on a book, but didn’t know the author. It’s a short book at 208 pages, so who knows, but maybe my count for this month will increase to six by day’s end.
I’ll leave you with the trailer for the movie, which my wife and I did watch last night and really enjoyed:
