JoeB1934 Searches for 5 Star Books and Memories

During 2023 YTD I have read 58 books, of which 27 were 5 Star books to me. My listing of those 5 Star books left me somewhat dissatisfied as there exists a subset of those books which provided me with enjoyment beyond other books.

Recently i was perusing Raton-Liseur's 2023 reading journal (Part 1) located at https://www.librarything.com/topic/347510#n8155007.

Early in that very comprehensive journal of her reading is an excellent solution to my problems. She introduces the concept of memorable reads as follows:

" Memorable reads from 2022
My memorable reads include books that I really enjoyed but are not exactly a top 5 or top 10 or top whatever number list. They are books that have made a lasting impression, not necessarily for their intrinsic qualities, but because I learnt a lot and/or I read them at the right time for me, and/or because they bring something utterly new in my reading world.
My more recent reads are more represented, probably because they are fresher in my mind rather than because I had a particularly splendid end of year reading! So this is a highly imperfect list, but it does give an idea of where my readings lead me to."

Raton has succinctly presented a set of criteria which matches my concept about some of my books. The key phrases in her statement that rang bells with me are:

1) books that have made a lasting impression, not necessarily for their intrinsic qualities.
2) because I learnt a lot
3) and/or I read them at the right time for me
4) and/or because they bring something utterly new in my reading world.

In my next posting I will present a list of my 2023 readings that qualify by one, or more of these conditions.

As a longer term project I hope to review my entire library to determine year-by-year the memorable books I can identify. This accomplishment will only come about with some difficulty as I am about to reach my 89th birthday and memories are fading for me.

In my analysis of this group of books the most common theme is a focused story on an individual, or a family and their dealing with some unusual situation that kept me very involved in a 'resolution'. In all stories there is a mystery component, but not usually a crime, perse.

The literary content is very high from my perspective, and many are classed as literary fiction.

Maybe because I just finished them, but the books by Jodi Picoult and Shelley Read are outstanding stories about two very different girls that left me in tears.

>1 JoeB1934: Honoured to be quoted in your first post!
Welcome to CR, great to see a thread author!
I've seeing your thread in Talk, and you seem up for a thorough analysis of your reading years. I'm sure it will tell a lot about your reads and yourself.

I just finished the book Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry and it ranks very high on my unwritten lifetime list of memorable books. Please go to reviews of this book on Goodreads for descriptions well beyond anything I can write. A partial list of the publishers blurb is as follows:

From the two-time Booker Prize finalist author, a dazzlingly written novel exploring love, memory, grief, and long-buried secrets

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe.

A beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite as it seems, Old God's Time is about what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.

The key word in that statement is haunting

While I can't do justice to describing this book, my personal description is this: An autobiography written by a poet about the loves of his life with uncertainty about where reality and dementia overlap. The writing is so exquisite that almost every sentrence is quotable, if one stops to think it through, and retains the capacity to remember it.

Many reviewers have profound statements about this book but one that summarizes it for me is on Goodreads as follows:

"Meredith (Slowly Catching Up)
794 reviews
12.4k followers

Follow
December 29, 2022
Haunting

4.5 stars

“Nothing was what it was made out to be. The truth included.”

Tom Kettle, a retired policeman, is startled out of his retirement reverie of a secluded life by the Irish sea when former colleagues approach him about a case involving a murdered priest. Stirring memories long tamped down, Tom must finally face the demons in his life.

Tom shifts from sharing memories of the past as he struggles to grapple with life in the present. The reader learns of his immense love for his wife, June, and their two children. Tragedy fills the pages.

Tom's story slowly unfolds. His narrative is sometimes confusing as he meanders from the past into the present. Tom is the sole narrator, and it is hard being in his head. His memories aren’t reliable, and his present is murky at best. I was constantly questioning what was real and what was fabricated to fit his truth.

Over time, he shares a harrowing story filled with love and much loss. As Tom reveals buried memories, I was pained and horrified. This is not an easy book to read.

There is also a bit of a mystery at play involving a case from Tom's past. However, the true mystery is about Tom's life and the losses he suffered.

Barry’s writing is exquisite. He captures the emotions and depths of a man long-suffering alone. It’s a quiet and depressing story filled with loss, trauma, and sorrow, but there is also beauty and unwavering love."

The description of this book reminds me a bit of Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller. You might check it out when you are in the mood for something similar.

>6 labfs39: Thanks for the suggestion. A quick look at the reviews makes me very interested in picking up an audio of the book.

I have encountered an interesting by-product of this Memorable book search. The last 3 books I read leading up to this concept were all memorable books. Since that time, I have read, or seriously considered reading 7 books. I have described those books on my literary mystery posting where I talk about all the books I read.

NONE of the 7 books are memorable and I didn't even finish 4 of them. Every one of the 7 books are rated very highly by their readers, and my analytical process led me to choose them. So, what happened?

There are a number of factors that help explain my current reading status.

First, is the fact that at my age I want to read memorable books as much as possible.

When I started reading those 7 books, I consciously considered the emotional situation being described. Do I have a true interest in the people in the book, and do I want to go along with them for a journey? Is this a book that I 'should' read, or one that I will be anxious to read chapter-by-chapter?

The analytical process I have developed has identified over 300 books which are strong candidates for me to read. But that is about three years of reading for me, at least. That doesn't even account for the fantastic books coming from new authors.

I realize that, most likely readers of this chat are not familiar with the trophy hunting common in big game hunting and fishing. Also, very big in team sports like football, baseball, the Olympics, etc. The Denver Nuggets just won the NBA championship after 47 years of trying and the fans are delirious.

Are memorable books my personal trophies important only to myself?

>8 JoeB1934: NONE of the 7 books are memorable and I didn't even finish 4 of them

Oh dear. At least you didn't feel compelled to finish those that were not working for you. I would like to get better at that, because there are too many others that won't get read as I slog through a few.

Nice to see your thread and analysis. I was bummed when Denver beat my Miami Heat team, but at least the Heat played well. The next day my Florida Panthers lost their final, and played terrible. I should be glad they both got into the final.

>9 labfs39: I have begun this quick drop of a book because of my age. I am generally in good health but approaching my 89th birthday and really don't want to waste time on books that don't seem headed for 5 stars with me.

Ironically, this 'old man' used his prerogative yesterday on Fathers' Day to reassign one of the 5-star books mentioned above as a member of my memorable books list. I plan to elaborate on why I upgraded this book in my literary Mystery chat at https://www.librarything.com/topic/349260#n8167125, but it is important to list the book here.

The book is Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris, it was an Edgar nominee way back in 2007 but I didn't discover the author until this year.

A lot is made about the mystery content in this book, and it is a fabulous mystery only resolved in the last few chapters. But it wasn't the mystery that pushed this book into my memorable category.

What was revelatory? It was the ingredients of coming-of-age issues with dedicated teachers and the educational institution that overrides the dynamic blend. Top it all off with the parents and local customs, economics and class structures. The importance of teachers and their ability to deal with their own personal life issues while leading students into a promised future is dramatically shown.

This NOT just another mystery!

I require a mystery component to keep me going, but I evaluate a book based on the details in the lives of the participants.

I realize this approach might seem incongruous, but I think of a mystery somewhat like a period at the end of a sentence to tell me the thought is finished, but it is the sentence content that is important.

>10 dchaikin: The Heat was a very admirable team and I suspect they could be back next year if they add additional strength. The Nuggets simply had more length and the basketball unicorn Nikola Jokic. But the Heat played with a lot of heart and determination. Both teams were strong on character.

>6 labfs39: I have been running into reading challenges recently which I talk about in my Literary Mystery chat, so I tracked down on Audible a copy of Norwegian by Night. I just finished it and am happily adding it to my Memorable Books list.

Just to refresh the situation, labfs39 suggested that i consider this book with a similar style to Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry. Both books explore the story of a man approaching the last days of their lives, with the possibility that dementia is becoming a large factor.

While their situations, on the surface are similar the 2 books had quite different impacts on me.

I could flow along with Old God's Time quite easily and there weren't any major surprises to me. I could understand and sympathize with the main character. The literary quality was incredible and highly appreciated.

Norwegian by Night has a literary quality equal to Old God's Time but I was constantly surprised by the thoughts and behavior of the main character in this book.

In my reading of mysteries, a common question in many stories is this type of dialogue: 'How are you getting along with XXX?' 'The answer is often, well it's complicated'. That fits my reaction to this story.

In Norwegian by Night the author weaves a complex mixture of historical events, family relationships, philosophical issues, Judaism, humor, discussions with God in the guise of a long lost friend, and other devices that I had trouble separating from real life and dementia. This didn't resolve in my mind up to and concluding with the final sentence in the book.

I am unable to discuss this mixture in any meaningful way so please read some reviews on GR, or LT to fully appreciate the book.

This book is a classical 'mystery' but it is the ongoing relationships and individuals that are essential to the story. The mystery component gave the dialogue meaning but the solution to the mystery wasn't important to me.

One can plausibly wonder if my age leads me to this style of books. I admit that there is such a factor to my thinking, but I can identify a book by Henning Mankell called The Troubled Man where Kurt Wallender was suffering from Alzheimer's that left me in tears. That was about 14 years ago.

There are several other books that I could mention where the detective was coming to the end of his career, and it had a large impact on me.

This week I went to the emergency room in terrific pain because of a sciatica nerve pinch and that gets one's attention. Who knows when I will be back to walking and listening to audio books. Fortunately, audio is available even if you are in pain.

Like anyone at my age you do think about what a life you led and how it could have been 'better' but I am not looking to learn those answers in the books I read. The main thing I have learned about my age and my reading is that I have little tolerance for the time spent reading 'good' books when it could have been spent on 'exceptional/memorable' books.

I hope you find some relief from that pain. Take care.

>14 JoeB1934: Ouch. Sciatica is horrid. I recently suffered from a herniated disc in my neck and the pain down my arm was memorable. Steroids helped until it could resolve itself. I hope you find some relief and heal soon.

P.S. Glad you found Norwegian by Night interesting. I have always been fascinated by issues of memory, both personal and national, and as I get older, dementia. Two other books on the topic that I enjoyed are And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Frederic Backman and Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Here is a quote from the latter:

Memory is like patches of sunlight in an overcast valley, shifting with the movement of the clouds. Now and then the light will fall on a particular point in time, illuminating it for a moment before the wind seals up the gap, and the world is in shadows again.

There are moments when, remembering what happened, I am unable to continue writing. What troubles me more than anything, however, and the instances when I cannot recall with certainty what has taken place. I have spent most of the my life trying to forget, and now all I want is to remember. I cannot remember what my sister looked like; I do not even have a picture of her. And my conversation with Aritomo by Usugumo Pond, on that night of the meteor shower..did it take place on the day of Templer's visit or did it occur on a different evening entirely: Time is eating away my memory. Time, and this illness, this trespasser in my brain.

>16 labfs39: i thought The Garden of Evening Mists was especially good on audio.

>16 labfs39: I am adding both books to my TBR list. The comment by dchaikin is very encouraging. Both books are available at DPL in audio, which I prefer. The holds aren't too long for me to wait.

Thank you for the BB as I would never have found them on my own.

I am SO sympathetic with you on your herniated disc problem. That word 'memorable' is really an understatement, I'm sure. The only cure for my issue is improvement to my posture and flexibility through specified exercises. I imagine your situation would be more complex.

I just finished And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Frederic Backman

This is truly a 5-star book, and the literary qualities are outstanding. Despite those attributes I wasn't able to relate to the book like my 2 previous books which I found to be memorable.

I find a book to be memorable when I am able to recognize characters similar those I have experiences with, or a recognition of a reality to the story.
In this book the numerous profound statements by the grandfather were matched by equally profound thoughts by the son/grandson.

In my life experiences as a son and a grandfather, of course there never occurred discourse anywhere close to that of this story. The author was simply portraying a world and relationships that didn't 'click' with me.

As a result of a conversation I had with my granddaughter Madeleine yesterday, I have determined that it might be useful to broaden the scope of this thread and I requested a change of title to JoeB1934 Searches for 5 Star Books and Memories.

This title highlights the process I use to find and designate a book as memorable to me.

As Raton-Liseur said early in this thread "I'm sure it will tell a lot about your reads and yourself." That forecast has certainly proven to be true, as personal interests that I have only vaguely thought about have been crystalizing.

With this introduction I will now begin working on details involved in this process. I hope to have developed a reasonable set of messages by my 89th birthday on July 13.

My interaction with Madeleine about Memorable books started when my family had the traditional Fathers' Day celebration this year.

Madeleine came, and she had prepared a photo montage of all the fathers and grandfathers in her life with pictures from our lives she had gathered. This was followed by a special homage to each of us that brought tears to our eyes. She can really write! She included my father, her great grandfather in the package.

What about this made me change my mind on a book rating? In her homage to me she gave me credit for instilling within her the love of books. (This might be partially true but her skills in writing and art history go way beyond anything I contributed.)

We often exchange book ideas even though her favorites are science fiction and mine are literary mysteries. Some of my best books came from her because she knows me to my core.

I realized that day that the book I wanted most to tell her about was Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris The more I think about that book the more important it becomes in my memory.

A lot is made about the mystery content in this book, and it is a fabulous mystery only resolved in the last few chapters. But it wasn't the mystery that pushed this book into my memorable category.

What was revelatory? It was the ingredients of coming-of-age issues with dedicated teachers and the educational institution that overrides the dynamic blend. Top it all off with the parents and local customs, economics, and class structures. The importance of teachers and their ability to deal with their own personal life issues while leading students into a promised future is dramatically shown.

This is NOT just another mystery!

My next messages will be about my current approach to the eternal question "What Book should I read next." This will be my personal approach to answering that question at this time in my life. It will definitely not be the answer to the question for the vast majority of members.

I enjoy following along as you explore the question "why I read what I read." It makes me reflect on my own reading choices.

How Has My Book Reading Evolved?

My serious book reading began around 1960 when I was entering my professional career, which left little time for reading. Until I retired in 2000 my reading choices were driven by thoughts like 'that book seems interesting', with a primary focus being Scottish mysteries, archaeology, anthropology, and how did my Scottish and Slovenian ancestors live.

When I discovered an author that I really liked I would read more of their books and other authors that seemed to be comparable. For many years I followed Marilyn Stasio's NY Times crime book discussion. She led me to reading non-British authors, as well as non-crime books.

I didn't know how to describe a book as being 'well written' but it seemed to involve some variation of the word 'literary' so that became a key word in my consideration of a book. There were several books that I came across that I now would call memorable. The first such book was My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey.

The biggest impact on my book interests was derived from Possession by A. S. Byatt. This book had so much that I really wanted. Literary, religion, science, history, a mystery and of course romance and obsession.

In summary, I got to where I wanted a literary book with interesting characters and a mystery component that carried me through to the end of the book.

I went along this general path reading books that I came across without any complete strategy as to finding such books. It wasn't until 2020 that I stumbled across a book listing on Goodreads that itemized well remembered books in what they called Literary Mysteries. I was totally amazed that I had already read 50 of the top 100 books on the list!

This background is meant to establish my current focus in finding books to read.

When describing a library LT provides a display of the books in the library by use of the fairly standard association of every book with the genre matched by the subject/content of the book. The 35 genres of the books in my library is displayed below:



LT also allows the display of which specific books are classified by each genre. It is very critical that you understand that most books fit into more than a single genre. Thus, a book can be a member of the Romance genre as well as Religion & Spirituality, and maybe Poetry.

While the LT genres are 'mostly' accepted by members there is always a need for what I call sub-genres. Depending on the preferences of a member further breakdowns of a genre into several subgenres is common.

LT has addressed this need by the Tag concept where each member can create multiple names of their choosing for each book. When I look at the list of tags for any book I usually find tag names which are what I would consider bookkeeping, or administrative tags, as well as genre-like tags.

Using the Tag Mirror to Measure a Library

My development of a book selection process depends upon exploitation of the Tag Mirror to identify which specific books in any set of books can be identified by association with my personal list of Tag Genres.

I selected 40 tag genre names that are meaningful to me and are commonly used by other members. There isn't any effort in measuring how important a tag is to a book. I am only interested in which tags are associated with a book, even if only a few of the readers designated that the book is one.

As a side observation, I am amazed at how few genre-like tags are attached to a book which has many non-genre tags. However, even a single reader attaching a specific tag to a book I found to be important.

Another very important observation is that not all readers even know about the tag name of 'literary mystery'. I worked around such defects by identifying a book as a literary mystery if certain pairs of tag were in existence on the book.

For example, a book which has been labelled as 'literary fiction' as well as 'mystery' clearly can be designated as a literary mystery.

Enough of this tag genre discussion. Now we will show how my library measures up to my 40 tag genres.

I analyzed the books in my library up to 2022, as well as the books I read up to 2000. This was an effort on my part to determine if the books I was reading early in my life changed significantly by 2022.

I also separated the tag genres into 3 tiers of tag names. The number in each column is the % of books for that period that have been labelled by the tag genre. For example, in Tier 1 84% of the books in 2000 were Crime Fiction while 79% were so labelled for the period of 2000 to 2022.

I separated the total list into three groups in order to rough levels of High, Medium, and Low.



I don't want to over analyze these stats, but in Tier 1 it seems like I increased my interest in Family and Relationships genres. I also dropped the emphasis on British Mysteries.

In Tier 2 the largest factors appeared in Books about Books and Coming of Age tags.

None of the Tier 3 grouping numbers are large, but I do see Magical Realism, Racism, and LGBTQ+ growing in importance. Those tags have increasingly been of importance to me since 2021.

I know that if I analyzed these stats just for the 2022 year by itself there would be even more differences identified. So, that analysis will be next on my agenda.

The most important stat in this display is the row labelled 'Lit-Myst Model'. That isn't a tag genre name, instead it indicates that if I analyze all the books in the library 83 % can be captured under the designation of 'Literary Mystery' as I have applied it.

Overnight I thought more about the previous display and determined that I had mixed data by comparing a single year to a string of years, 2000-2022. This led me to the concept of comparing the original year, 2000 with my most recent year, 2022.

This turned out to be a very revealing view into how my reading has changed over the years. Consider the following display.



This is a dramatic representation of my evolution as a reader. It shows exactly how my interests have evolved.

The process I am currently using to select which books I will read next starts with the assignment of these tag genres, but there are additional factors I use in arriving at the final choices. That process will be presented next when I complete what I hope will be an understanding useful to readers.

One aspect of this set of tag genres is that, other than the mystery and literary type of genres I rarely went searching for books that produce a specific tag. The distribution of tag genres is a result of choosing books to read that seem interesting to me.

This distribution simply 'measures who I am as a reader'.

The connection comes about because when I am considering a book to read, I look for any mention of these 40 tag genres. One problem is that I find that not every reader creates these genre-like tags.

Happy Birthday, Joe! What great analysis of your reading habits over time. I hope your reading journey continues to uncover great memorable reads for you.

It is now a day after my birthday and my objective of completing this exercise by my birthday was missed, of course. There were extenuating circumstances, however as there were considerable visits to the doctor for myself and my wife.

I am now trying to complete everything by July 16 when my whole family will gather in celebration of the event. Being somewhat realistic that new deadline will most likely be missed also.

Our family tradition is that the person with the birthday gets to request a 'favorite' meal.

Last year I had a meal which was composed of Slovenian dishes as made by my Scottish mother. My daughters had to do a lot of internet searches to recreate the menu. It was fantastic!

This year they are providing a meal which is more akin to my Scottish family as created in Wyoming during my teen years and extending to the meals she created for my daughters over the years.

Yesterday my family provided a backyard garden birthday event which was designed around experiences of mine and theirs in Wyoming.

The foundation for those experiences was the extensive amount of time we spent scouring the high desert for evidence of Native Americans living there for many thousands of years. This time was provided by my father through use of a 4-wheel drive truck and a camper he designed and made. The camper had all necessary cooking and refrigeration appliances plus sleeping for 2 adults and 2 children up to teen-age years.

I will discuss later other issues related to these experiences, but my birthday event was intended to duplicate the major meal we had in the evening. The meal consisted of a T-Bone steak, mashed potatoes and carrots mixed, an apricot and Jello mixture, and a mixed green salad.

Dessert was what we called a Sunshine cake baked by my mother, who rarely came along on the trip. She was a legendary baker of all things. Many trips we had other Slovenian deserts, but my daughters have to struggle to duplicate those. However, the Sunshine cake was re-created by my youngest daughter, Shelley using my mother's hand written recipe.

To complete the duplication my daughters retrieved all of the original dishes from the camper, and we used those. As you are well aware sharing a meal together brings back many memories that we could all share and laugh about.

To connect to book reading each of my grandchildren provided me with an Audible subscription so I could continue to listen to books while walking.

My granddaughter brought to my attention a fabulous book on the Wyoming experience. I promptly put on hold The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich. Just a 7 week wait, but I might use Audible to get my own copy.

These experiences have had a profound impact on my life and interests. Archaeology, anthropology, geology, age of the earth, ancient civilizations, and especially the peopling of the Americas are part of my core. I am always interested in learning more about how my ancestors lived.

Many of these interests are non-fiction by nature, but the plight of Native Americans is very high on my reading interests. One of my favorite authors in that regard is Louise Erdrich and I started her book The Plague of Doves this morning. I know that I will be enraged by their treatment, but I hope to further understand how they coped with such treatment.

Hi Joe, I'm very much enjoying these interesting posts and life stories of yours, here. Love the Boyd quote about reading.

I never promised you a rose garden, but I did promise a method for finding your next book to read.

In reality, I can only provide an understanding of the method I use to identify a collection of books from which I can find my next book to read. As you have read my prior messages you, most likely don't see how my method can be applied to your book reading.

If your favorite genres are similar to my 40 favorites you might get some idea of books to add to your candidate books to read. Or maybe some of the concepts I use will trigger an idea for you to pursue. I do believe that the concepts presented by William Boyd really enforce the concept that each of us have unique reading preferences.

When I consider a book to read there are several factors to consider:

1) Is the writing of a literary quality?
I use the tag mirror for the book to see if any form of the word literary is attached.

2) What do other readers think about the book?
I obtain the Avg Rating from LT as a measure. My nominal target is for books with a rating of 3.8, or higher.

3) Who is the author?
My favorite author list is about 180 names, but new authors I haven't read yet are added every year.

4) What is the genre of the book?
The tag mirror process attaches every one of my 40 favorite tag-genres if mention of the tag is found in the tag mirror list for the book.

A sample result for a collection of my books is displayed as follows:



This group comprises a few new books in 2023 that somehow caught my attention. The Avg Ratings are exceptionally high because there are very few reviews of these books. My total list of books I will be considering reading is about 400 books. The list has been built from a variety of sources. LT contributed quite a few and 'best of' book lists have been included. I obtain new members on the list almost every day from Club Read 2023 chats.

If I apply each of the 4 dimensions mentioned previously to these 10 books there are 5 which meet all tests and 5 that are only of interest because of their high avg rating. Before I delete them as candidates to read, I would need to read reviews of each book and look at their book tags.

With a 400-book list I don't have time to explore each book manually since, at most I will be reading about 125 books in 2023. So, I need a sorting technique which will put a spotlight on books which seeme to be the most promising.

When I first started using a list of favorite tags with tagmash techniques in 2020 I discovered an unexpected correlation of the book tag count and my favorite authors.

I have built my favorite author list all the way back to the 1980-1990 period. I didn't have any concept of genres back then. I simply was on the look-out for British 'well written' mysteries. When I found an author that I liked I looked for similar authors. Occasionally I would read about an author and a book that seemed interesting to me and I would check it out from the library or find it in a used book store.

It was the use of tagmashes that led me to thinking more about different tag genres and book tag counts.

I still have the memory of the day that I had finally achieved a process for assigning tags to every book in my library of about 1000 books. While I was in the library display for my books that day I saw that there is a way to display the tag count for the book, which I added to the parameters. Then, being a sorter at heart I clicked on the tag count to obtain the list of books with the largest tag count number.

WOW, many of my most favorite books were at the top of the list!

The next display shows the type of results when applied to my current library. I have added the year each book was read and dropped the tags to emphasize when I read some of my favorite books.

All of these books are truly on my most favorite list.

I also need to tell you that there isn't any rank order to this list. The position of a book on the list does not mean it has a higher rank than the book below it.



These results are all used in my sorting the 400 books to consider reading so the most likely candidates I can enjoy are floated to the top, so to speak.

I also need to emphasize that you can't use this technique on any books which have non-genre-like tags. No bookkeeping, or administrative type of tags

My next messages will describe the process more completely and present a list of the books I have read to-date in 2023.

In planning my next steps I decided that it was appropriate for me to re-position a post from earlier in my chat

As I continue to analyze my reading history and the relationship to books I feel compelled to attach the following:

While reading ‘Lanark’ by Alasdair Grey I read the introduction to the book which was written by William Boyd. These authors are outstanding Scottish literary luminaries. William Boyd led the Introduction by the following statement:

“Readers develop unique histories with the books they read. It may not be immediately apparent at the time of reading, but the person you were when you read the book, the place you were where you read the book, your state of mind while you read it, your personal situation (happy, frustrated, depressed, bored) and so on- all these factors, and others, make the simple experience of reading a book a far more complex and multi-layered affair than might be thought. Moreover, the reading of a memorable book somehow insinuates itself into the tangled skein of personal history that is the reader's biography: the book leaves a mark on that page of your life - leaves a trace
- one way or another.”

I hope to find answers to my book reading history and to reveal those answers in my proceeding from my 89th birthday.

I firmly believe in this description of reading by William Boyd, and it compels me to be very clear about what I am doing with this chat.

My intention is to describe a process which is very useful to me, but with high probability not adaptable to anyone else. The most I can expect is that some of the books I found to be important to me would ring a bell for someone else.

Another important point is that the tag count method only identifies books which have a higher likelihood of being interesting. In the final step in picking a book it is the reader who has to choose and no analytical process like this one can ever be determinate.

I strictly use the methods developed here to bring my focus to books which are worth spending valuable time on. I am very focused on audio books and many of them require 10 hours of my time to read to completion. I think reading 2 books per week is plausible for me. A goal of 100 books per year follows from that level of reading.

Given a TBR of 400 books I absolutely must find the 'best' 100 by some device. My stated preferences are to read books which can be classified as literary mysteries, or literary fiction. It turns out that 75% of the TBR list fits that description.

My thinking about reading over the last year has been evolving as I am getting older. The earlier discussion about noting memorable books has contributed a lot to my development. For me, the question has become "why am I wasting time on books which end up being good, but not outstanding?"

I realize that not every outstanding book will be memorable, but I have redefined my reading goal to one of searching for 5-star books. These books would be 5-star books in my reading judgement and not to be taken as 5-stars for anyone else.

Within this approach I have been quite brutal about discarding a book when I arrive at the point where it is no longer a candidate to be 5-stars for me. I am sure that some of these 'not 5-star' books will be terrific books for others. In fact, by looking only at books which project to have an Avg Rating of 4+ makes such outcomes very likely.

I will discuss this approach more as I display the results from my 2023 reading YTD.

Two displays below show the books which passed my personal testing for 5-Star books and Not 5-Star books.

My observations about these books are:

1) The Avg Ratings are most frequently well above 4+. Those books lower are ones from my favorite authors as well as having a substantial Tag Count
2) In my complete TBR list the average tag count is around 10 tags, so tag counts in the 3-9 tags indicates books which contain fewer of my favorite tags. My observation is that the Avg Rating for those books are mostly well above 4, which only means that other readers are very frequently providing them with 5 stars.
3) I wish that I had recorded a one-liner stating why I designated each book as 5-stars. My memory for a book I read 6 months ago isn't good enough to create comments today. I will be more on-the-spot the rest of the year.
4) In reality my technique prefers books which combine a high rating with a high tag count, but a high rating is more important to me. The book Properties of Thirst is an outstanding book for me and its excellence is achieved by the 4.21 AR and 3 Tags

I will potentially add more commentary in the next few days as I contemplate these results.

My comments on the books which came close to 5-stars, but didn't get there for me will be difficult to establish, but here goes:

1) Note that these books all satisfy my criteria of being at 3.8+ Avg Rating.
2) I haven't specified exactly the list of my favorite authors, but the majority of these books are on that list.
3) My best explanation is that these books were all selected to be read, but they simply didn't meet my newest criteria of being better than good.

I really need to supply one-liner explanations of how each book failed to meet my requirement. I intend to move forward through the year doing exactly that as I finish each book.

I could create one-liner explanations for some of these books, which would be unfair to books that I can't re-analyze.

Note also that the column titled My Rating is equal to the Avg Rating. I simply don't want to send readers away from any of these books by a rating from me which isn't reflective of what any other reader might have.

I repeat the books on this list are, by and large outstanding books well worth your investigation.

I still need to dig deeper into the reasons why I selected a book as 5-stars, and not others which I didn't evaluate that way.

There is one book that was a 5-star book practically from page 1. That book is Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese, It was first mentioned by DeltaQueen50 early in July.

A partial publishers detail is:

" Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with the man. The rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner."

Essential ingredients to this story for me are:

1) Thoughts and behavior of a man nearing the end-of-life.
2) A father and son relationship.
3) The intersection of Native American and contemporary white society.

I need to set the record straight, I am now 89 and prone to thinking about my life, but I am not in poor health.

My relationship with my father was outstanding and he instilled in me a lot of my interests and attributes. I mentioned earlier in this chat about my interest in Native American issues which came about because of my father.

Early in Medicine Walk the boy takes his dying father to view 'paintings' on a rock face which were made by indigenous people. There is conversation between the two about meaning and power of these figures.

In my case my father took me and my children to several sites in Wyoming where he had discovered petroglyphs scratched into the rocks. The age of these were probably 1,000 years to maybe 3,000 years old, but dating of them is very difficult.

My whole family had similar discussions about their purpose and meaning. From our perspective they seemed to be efforts at communication, or storytelling. Animals, handprints and other more geometric figures were there. I can still see the stick figure group of 2 adults and 3 children side by side with the fingers touching.

My father also discovered one specific archeological site which was excavated and reported on by professional archaeologists. Artifacts were found that aged from one thousand to eight thousand years old. I have asked my family to spread my ashes near that site, but not on it, to 'sojourn' with those people.

On a broader perspective, another statement by the publishers is the following:

"A novel about love, friendship, courage, and the idea that the land has within it powers of healing, Medicine Walk reveals the ultimate goodness of its characters and offers a deeply moving and redemptive conclusion. Wagamese's writing soars and his insight and compassion are matched by his gift of communicating these to the reader."

This is truly a memorable book for me.

I am now looking at which books I want to read next. I still retain almost 300 books in my candidates to read after removing the 2023 books already read.

Using my method of looking at the number of tags for a book and the avg rating given to the book by other LT members I scanned the total books available to read and found 28 books that appealed to my interests.

This is when it is necessary to integrate analytics and personal interests of mine on this day. There are many, many other 28 books that could be justified by the analytics, but these rang bells for me. I might well add others, or drop some as I continue reading.

In the list below some of the books are new this year but scheduled to be published in the next few months. I also need to note that for each book I am looking for an audio version and must await availability at the DPL. So, the books will not be available in the order listed.

I chose books that provided me with what seemed to be interesting genres and highly ranked books by other readers.

This resulted in quite a reasonable distribution of my favorite tag-genres as can be seen in this picture. This applies to the 28 books on what I call my Libby holds list.



I also need to draw your attention to the Literary Mystery value of 9. This means that readers have given that tag to 9 of the 28 books.

I have mentioned earlier that not every reader even knows about such a tag. In my analysis any book that has a combination of literary and mystery together signifies a label of literary mystery for such a book meets my definition.

It turns out that 24 of the 28 books can be called literary mysteries.

The order I read books from this list is somewhat out of my control as I prefer audio books from the library. The book described below was first to arrive and it is truly an exceptional book if the genre of science fiction and horror appeal to you. The literary quality is outstanding and I urge you to read reviews on GR to understand more about the book.

I give the book 4 stars simply because, while I do enjoy this genre mix it is not my go-to genre mix.

I just finished two more wonderful books. I wonder if I will be able to find books which held my interest so strongly.

The Solace of Open Spaces is such an evocative picture of my youth in Wyoming. I personally didn't have personal experiences with sheepherders and cattlemen as she writes about, but I lived around them and had to deal with the environmental challenges she writes about.

After all the various analyses and digressions into concepts and mathematics I decided that it would be useful to list the books I have read to date.

I don't write reviews, so this list is presented with the two main descriptions that are important to me in choosing a book.

First, for each book is the list of my favorite tag genres that have been attached to the book by the universe of LT members.

Then, there are the numbers which indicate to me how other readers rate the book, followed by my personal star rating.

Finally, I need to point out that the vast majority of these books were selected by me for their possession of a literary mystery attribute.

I also need to tell you that I actually read, but DNF about 20 other books that qualified in the same way these books qualified. I have become quite intolerant of any book that doesn't suit my mood at that time. I feel comfortable doing so because my TBR list has another 200 books equally qualified by my criteria.

I have read 3 additional books that deserve designations.

Every Heart a Doorway is a rare, for me fantasy genre. Very like other books which are based on 'doorways' into other realms. Last year I was enthralled with The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. Of course who will ever forget Alice in Wonderland

The first two books are truly literary mysteries. Meanwhile The Last Lifeboat isn't technically a literary mystery, but a fantastic historical mystery.

The Color of Water is simply a magnificent book about race relations at the core of society.



These books and many others on my previous books confirm that 'Literary Mystery' books are, in essence genre neutral. Books that qualify with this designation are simply terrific books, whatever the genre.

After filtering about 600 books on my first list of TBR down to 400 books I still am left with far more books than I can read during the remainder of 2023.

Today I decided to sort all those books in order to identify the highest avg rating books for each of my favorite tag genres.

For example, I identified the 'Historical Mystery' book that has the highest avg rating among all books with that designation. I did this for each of my Favorite Tag Genres and placed the list of such books in a separate file. The following display contains the books that have this attribute.



It took only 15 books to contain the highest rated books for 38 of the tag genres because literary mysteries most often contain many tag genres. You can observe this behavior by studying the tag genres listed for each book.

I will not limit myself to reading just these books. Instead, over the course of the next 4 months I will always be looking to read each book as audio copies become available.

Meanwhile, I will continue to read other highly rate literary mysteries not on this list. At my current reading rate I hope to read about 35 more books by the end of 2023.

I need to note that several of the books on the list haven't yet been published, but are scheduled to do so in 2023.

Wow, Joe. I finally had the opportunity to sit down and get caught up on your thread. You are so thoughtful about your reading. You always inspire me to think more about my own choices. We share enough favorites, books by authors like Connie Willis, Fredrik Backman, and Jacqueline Winspear, that I always take note of books that you rate highly or are thinking of reading. Our lists of books we want to read have many overlapping books too. I'm glad I can share in your reading journey.

And your birthday celebrations sound lovely. Adult birthdays are rarely celebrated in my family, so I always listen to other people's birthday stories with voyeuristic enjoyment. What are you currently reading?

>53 labfs39: I just finished The Color of Water which I found to be absolutely engrossing. It happened that my Libby hold for Anxious People by Fredrik Backman became available so I start it today.

Of my recent books the most memorable one was The Last Lifeboat, which is based on an actual WWII Nazi event in history. The emotions in that book were incredible.

Preceded by an early visit to physical therapy for my sciatica issues. Such fun!

>54 JoeB1934: I'm listening to The Color of Water and audio currently and am nearing the end. I agree that it's fabulous. I really enjoyed Anxious People too. Maybe not a foolproof mystery plot or highbrow literature, but a really nice reading experience. I'll check out The Last Lifeboat, as I like WWII books. Good luck with the sciatica. Ouch!

>54 JoeB1934: >55 labfs39: Now that you both have enjoyed The Color of Water I’m going to have to put it on my tbr. Have I just read two excellent novels I have a tendency to expect too much especially on the writing quality.

I have written a short piece about my life with our dog Percy and how it relates to my reading.

It is located at Readers Over Sixty and the link is:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/353405#n8222355

You might be amused by it. I am working on it so the current product is liable to be modified by me.

Cute, Joe. The "Furry Scurry" is a hoot.

BTW, to resize a photo add width=300 (or so for a photo) or width=140 (for a book cover), or whatever number of pixels you want. You can preview your post and see how it looks. So the tag would be open bracket img width=140 src="url" close bracket.

Or see The New How To Do Fancy Things In Your Posts Thread.

I would only mess with width and not height personally, as doing both can elongate your picture in weird ways.

>58 labfs39: Thanks for the tip! Now the picture of Percy is:

I'm glad it worked! He's adorable.

I just finished Anxious People by Fredrik Backman and I thought it would be interesting to write a bit more about my experiences with the book than I usually do.

I began to listen to the audio version on a 20-minute ride to Costco. I don't know exactly what my mood was, or my expectations, but in a nutshell, I was ready to make it a DNF. Among my thoughts were: what idiots! are these real people? has the world moved on and left me behind?

However, by the time I came out of Costco and gone to a farmers' market to buy wonderful Colorado peaches I began to think: My elaborate book finding exercise had this book ranked very high, and other members that I respect speak well of the book. So, later that day I restarted the book.

Boy am I happy! The main feature I look for in a book, given that it has literary qualities and a bit of a mystery, are the details about relationships and family. This book is all about relationships, of which there are at least 5, or 6 of them. After reading the book I now understand those relationships quite well, even for the ones labelled as an idiot in the book.

There is an important additional fact about this book. It comes in print versions of course, and audio which I prefer, as well as a Netflix series. My preference for audio is based on convenience, but even more on the emotional feedback I obtain.

I finished the audio version and immediately viewed the video of the story. Now what do I think? As per usual, any movie about a book inevitably has to shorten and eliminate some details to go from an 8-hour read to a 1.5-hour viewing.

I have been described by other LT members as an enthusiastic/emotional reader and I often mention reacting to a book with tears in my eyes. Honestly, in spite of details modified by the video, I had a more emotional response to the video because of the look on faces and behavior in the relationships. I remain believing that overall, I obtained more understanding from the audio version.

I don't know if my next observation will make sense to many of you, but in a classical music analogy, i could see a similar progression from a symphony, and a symphony with a soloist and a full opera with music, scenery and soloists. For me the emotions get accelerated in going through that series.

No, I am not a musician, but Carey, my daughter I Live with teaches piano and cello and the children's musical talent comes from their mother.

Just to close out this odd report on my reading my literary mystery process came up with the following Tag Genres for the book:
Literature, Mystery, Literary-Fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Family, Relationships

I certainly will look into more of this authors books.

>61 JoeB1934: interesting how that happens - that you get a book that people with similar interests have really liked, and you can’t get into it. So after restarting Anxious People you liked it. What was it that regained your interest?

>59 JoeB1934: I read your story in the Over 6o group. He sounds delightful. I like his discerning nature. And of course he looks cute too.

>63 kjuliff: You happened to arrive at my report before I finished it. So, please read the revised version and get back to me if you need more discussion.

>65 JoeB1934: I’ve read the full post now. Thanks. I understand now.

I'm glad you ended up liking Anxious People, Joe. Backman's characters, in all their messed up humanness, ring true for me. My favorite book by him is the novella, And every morning the way home gets longer and longer, then Anxious People and A Man Called Ove. Britt-Marie was Here and My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry are in the next tier down. Beartown is my least favorite, and I haven't read the sequels. I had no idea that Anxious People had been made into a movie already. I haven't seen the Tom Hanks version of Ove either, though I plan to.

>67 labfs39: I have And every morning the way home gets longer and longer on my TBR and will read it soon. I don't know why in my previous years I never had found him. Your ranking of his books is really useful to me.

I really went from what a bunch of idiots to your 'ring true for me' and wanting to know these people. The video helped a lot to maximize those feelings.

During this LT downtime I have been reminiscing a bit about my reading life and among those reveries was a book I read in 2018 that is even now one of those books which have left a strong emotional memory. That book was:

The Boy at the Keyhole by Stephen Giles with avg rating 3.15 for 1,569 ratings and 371 reviews on GR.

The publisher's blurb was:
An electrifying debut in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, about a British boy who, after his mother is abruptly called away to America, begins to suspect that perhaps she did not leave, but was murdered—by the housekeeper who cares for him in the family's isolated country estate.

The author of this book has only this book on his record. He did write about how to be a good Dad and several other items in computer related areas.
How did a book with a rating of 3.15 become one that I value so much?

The publisher totally miscast this book. It isn't even remotely like Shirley Jackson or Daphne Du Maurier. The story is all about a boy whose mother has vanished without explanation. His friends and his own ideas dominate the range of possibilities.

This can be measured by the stats which indicate that 33 % of readers rated the book as 4+5 stars. If you read the reviews those that rate the book highly, like me understood and appreciated the true story. Negatives came from those who expected a Daphne Du Maurier story.

I really don't want to reveal any spoilers, but I can say that the story ends with a bit of a mystery and for me, "I was heartbroken."

My well-developed system finds books for me that are easily 5-star candidates. However, with any analytical method the ultimate choices one reads depend upon the details of the story for you.

I was once a boy, but my mother was the opposite of the one in this story, even though I was somewhat of an 'adventurous' child. Despite this I could easily understand what the BOY was imagining. His friends weren't any help at all.

This is a book that for me, and maybe you is truly a memorable 5-star book.

The last few days have been sort of a mid-course correction in my near-term reading. The Boy at the Keyhole I just reported on is simply one part of my current thinking.

I have never been a strong believer in the 1001 Books to read before you die. I acknowledge that those books are truly magnificent, but are they really the ones that I should read?

Over the last 9 months I have accumulated over 400 books which are serious candidates for me to read, and I add to the list almost every day by following other members of LT. I don't have enough years left to read all of them, as I am now 89 with generally good health. So, what books should I actually read next?

Need to do some work around the house and will finish the course correction later

I enjoyed My Life as Fake too, although i read it a long time ago now (it had already aged when an lter sent me a copy).

So glad you liked The Color of Water.

Interesting about restarting your audiobook. Personally, i feel i’m a bad book starter. I get impatient and out of tune with the book and it all goes wrong until I figure out a mindset that works. So sometime I restart. I did that Old God’s Time, and it helped (even if i really hadn’t missed anything the first go. I just had trouble adjusting). I’m really into the book now. I’ve finally taken to the reader.

I'm now back from that 'work' around the house. That work and my adjustments to my reading approach are part of the 'snowball' effect that happens to everyone at some time in their life.

The snowball in my case was a very minor fender-bender I had last week when I did a U-turn around a light pole in a shopping center near us. I have done the maneuver many times before but this time my depth perception wasn't quite right, and it happened. In brief, here are the subsequent events:

1) I go to an auto body shop and this minor fender-bender will cost $4k on a 25-year-old, low mileage Lexus RX300 which is Carey's lifetime car.
2) I go to the dealer for front-end alignment and find out the car needs $2K rear struts. The trade-in value of the car is less than $1K.
3) Carey and I have been talking for several years that we both would like a car with excellent safety features so she goes on Carfax and finds a 2018 Rx350, low mileage with all the safety features you can imagine.
4) She buys the car for herself and let's face it, me and my age.
5) I don't believe that I am a hazardous driver that needs to lose his license, but I have been nervous about certain driving situations and, even though the car safety features are terrific I am reconsidering how I do the driving around for shopping restaurants, etc.
So, time to revise the driving I do. The biggest change is to avoid any situations where I need to cross a street and make a left turn across one lane which requires quick analysis to do so. There happens to be such a chance close to home and I will now go to a stoplight which is a few blocks away.
6) It is time for me to get very serious about how I choose to read books. Who knows what will happen to anyone, on any given day, no matter their age.

This overdrawn story has led me to stop fooling around with books that are, possibly outstanding books which, even last year I happily would have read.

I will produce some details later on my next book to read, but today I have made the first change, as follows.

Last week I started reading The Spectacular by Fiona Davis. She is one of my favorite authors and this book has a rating of 4.15 with 35% 5-stars and 47% 4-stars. I got about 25% through the book and was enjoying it when it dawned on me that I could see where this was going, and I didn't really care that much.

Meanwhile I had on Libby the book One Drum by Richard Wagamese with a subject of indigenous lives and beliefs that have from my youth been a real interest of mine while growing up in Wyoming.

I made the switch today on my walk with Percy and I was blown away by his presentation and the subject matter. I only started it but it won't be forgotten any time soon.

>71 dchaikin: Thanks for your comment about My Life as a Fake. I had begun to wonder if anyone else had ever read it also.

My interest in Old God's Time, of course ties into the fact that I am in the end days of life as he was. But the poetic nature of the writing has me reading other books by that author.

I just added 2 of his other books, in line with my revised reading approach.

I'm sorry to hear about your fender bender, Joe. I'm glad you are okay. I think everyone's wise to put aside a book that isn't working. For all of us, life is too short to read all that we want to.

I will soon have more to say about my planned reading, but meanwhile I have come to reminisce about mystery TV shows based on author's that I have loved for decades. I haven't read all of their books, or even watched all of the TV shows. It is somewhat ironic that in most cases I have viewed the last of their respective series and I want to discuss how each of these detective's finished their stories.

1) I just finished rewatching the complete Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter on PBS. Morse died in the last show from physical ailments worsened by his personal life to which he refused to modify. He was erudite and very fond of classical opera and a real 'thinking' detective. In essence he died with his shoes on and solved his last mystery while on his deathbed.

2) The next series was the Kurt Wallender series by Henning Mankell. While this series was a little too thriller oriented for me a times, I could really understand Wallender and his approach to solving crimes. His last book 'The Troubled Man' brought him to the end of his life as he saw Alzheimer's rapidly approaching. I flat-out cried when I tried to tell my family about this ending.

3) I haven't watched or read anywhere the total of The Maigret series by Georges Simenon. It possesses an incredible rendition of a detective solving complex mysteries through very slow and methodical questions and contemplative periods. I am not sure how this series ends but I intend to look into it.

4) The last series I want to mention is George Gently by Alan Hunter. Again, I haven't watched all of the series, but it has become one of my favorite characters. Gently has so much humanity, and he deals with current issues of race with the greatest of sympathies for all sides in every conflict.

I can't remember the title of the last show, but the ending was startling. He is on a seashore, and he has come to the awareness that his approach has offended the political hierarchy. In the last scene as he is thinking about his dead wife that he lost in the past near the sea he deliberately walks toward the water knowing that he is about to be assassinated.

>74 JoeB1934: I intend to read more of Sebastion Barry too. Which two did you choose?

>77 kjuliff: I have read The Secret Scripture and found it to be a 5-star book also. Not at the Old God's Time level but well worth the read. I have The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty on my list to read when I have time.

I need to emphasize that my choices require an audio version.

>78 JoeB1934: Thanks. I require an audio version too. I think I’ll give The Secret Scripture a shot.

I promised a few days ago to outline my revised book reading choices. I have read a couple of books that simply fell into my lap because they have been on my Libby holds list. I will discuss my reactions to those books, but first I want to update some of my current approaches to this so-called TBR reading process.

Anyone who has labored along with me in my developing system will not be surprised by the approach I will be using. I do apologize, however with subjecting you to an analysis which is quite foreign to what the vast majority of LT members are comfortable with.

When I review my reading history, I recognize that I began with a very simplistic approach revolving around British mysteries and certain non-fiction interests involving anthropology and family ancestry. Having never been exposed to classical literature, I didn't place literature quality as a factor.

I discovered that there were certain authors that told stories I really liked. This caused me to become more author centric than I had been.

Peter Carey led me to the book My Life as a Fake and my eyes were opened to broader notions of what really interested me. Then I read Possession and I was converted to the understanding about quality and dimensionality. There are other authors who had a measurable impact on my reading but, to summarize I came to develop a personal set of genres which always triggered my interest if they were mentioned in publications.

Mystery always interested me, but books-about-books, coming-of-age, literary, and so on until my genre-like names added up to 35-40 names. These are all names at a lower level than LT and library genres. I have named them tag-genres for my purposes.

I really don't have a true rank order preference for these tag-genres. It might be the mood I am in, or having neglected a given tag, or who knows what. I do require in fiction to have an element of suspense to the story, whatever the genre. I also require a solid literary quality to the writing.

Thus, my interest in literary mysteries even though that specific phrase is rarely used in promoting a book. Whatever route I took in the last year when I placed a book onto my TBR list, all of these thoughts led to a current TBR list of 575 books! I imagine reading maybe 50-75 books during the remainder of 2023.

How would you go about choosing 50 books from the list? A method which works for me (no surprise) is as follows.

1) Identify for each book which specific tag-genres from my list have been attached to the book by other readers.
2) Analyze the tag list for each book to find:

a) Is the author a favorite author?

b) Can the book be classified as a literary mystery?

c) Does the book have a literary fiction classification in the press?
3) What is Avg Rating for the book?

In my next post I will apply these criteria to spotlight the books which rise to the top of the 575 books. This doesn't mean that I would be unhappy with books that aren't among the best. I simply want to identify those that stand the best chance of being memorable to me.

The issue I am confronted with is choosing 50-75 books out of 575 books that possess the necessary ingredients for me to be very pleased to have read them. In order to develop dimensions about these books I used Excel to calculate a variety of counts of interest to me.

These are displayed below:



This data is very informative to me as they measure books according to details I use to choose a book to read.

1) There are 100 books that were written by my list of about 150 favorite authors.
2) Only 33 books have been identified specifically as Literary Mysteries by readers.
3) My three personal definitions of tag combinations that define an LM range from 125 to 188 books.
4) There are 56 books which qualify for me as strong LM books as all 3 of the personal definitions exist in those books.
5) The book quality I depend on frequently is the Avg Rating for all readers of a book. My 575 books have an average rating of 3.97
6) There are 301 books with Avg Rating of 4+ and 501 books with avg rating of 3.7+
7) The presence of my favorite tag-genres for a book is very important to me and those tags on average exist at 7.21 tags per book. What is not shown is that the tag count ranges from a high of 25 to a low of 3 for individual books.

To paraphrase from an unknown (to me) storyteller from the past "I have told you all that to get to say this."

The "this" in my case is a list of books which rise to the top of my 575 books, which I will produce in my next post.

Can't wait to see the list :-)

>76 JoeB1934: All of my favourite T V shows are there. You might be interested in a more modern series of TV shows called Endeavour. This is a series about the young Morse. It is very good and of course you will know that Endeavour was Morse's first name, hence that is why he insisted in calling himself Morse.

>83 baswood: Yes, I just finished the Endeavor series, and I liked it a lot. The final scene with the Morse Jaguar passing was superb.

After a lot of back-and-forth, I finally came to the conclusion that I have a diversity of desires when I pick the next book to read. This diversity displays itself when I express my interest in a book. Is it by a favorite author, or is it a genuine literary mystery, or is it diverse in the tag-genres, or is it an intriguing book that doesn't necessarily fit into any of those.

I decided that I needed to compare the best 50-100 choices for me in each of these categories. This analysis resulted in the following 12 books from each.



If you compare these sets of books there are a few that appear everywhere.

The leading example is The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger.
I just purchased the book from Audible yesterday and will start it today.

Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson is now available to me and will follow next in line.

I just finished The Longmire Defense by Craig Johnson. These 3 books have been at the top of my TBR list all year and they are among my most favorite authors.

With this set of 4 categories of books to select my next read from I am very comfortable with the process. For the last several years I have mostly been operating within the first three criteria.

The Top Diversity Books group has garnered much more of my attention this year as my interests began to peak on classical literary fiction. This display doesn't fully show that, but I am now of a mind to analyze my 2023 books read YTD to see how my reading has diversified.

I will always have an automatic attraction to my favorite authors, but newly discovered authors are especially interesting. In fact, I am reminded by this exercise that I need to review/update my favorite authors list by new 2023 authors.

Since I am always adding new books to the TBR I will need to repeat this analysis monthly and remove books I have read from the list. Next month's list will be different, I'm sure.

>78 JoeB1934: I tried The Secret Scriptures and unfortunately, though it seemed excellent I couldn’t handle the reader’s brogue, and gave up round chapter two. I think I read a different version than you. I got mine from NY Braille library and it has a different reader from the Audible version. So will wait till I have an Audible credit, as it seems too good to miss out on.

After several years expounding on my literary mystery obsession, I have decided to discontinue this presentation of my methods and results.

I will continue to search for and read books, but my reporting will be limited to a new chat that will only present books I have read in current time and my personal response to the book.

It will be more akin to a Books Read Diary, but I haven't yet decided about the format, or which Group it fits with.

I will respond to any future messages that are pertinent to this chat.

Thank you to all who have followed along with my somewhat laborious process.

After thinking about the various methods for identifying my book reading for 2023 I have decided to create a new Club Read with the title:

JoeB1934 Memorable Books of 2023

The format will simply incorporate covers for those books which have been the most memorable for me in 2023 YTD

ooh, I like that, Joe. I've read (and enjoyed) three of them; several others are on my wishlist.

>89 labfs39: I have now completed my new chat and there is a revised set of memorable books beyond this first cut.

Give it a try at:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/353845#n8236848

After doing the Memorable books project it dawned on me that if I am to obtain more such books, I would need to continue reading books at the same rate that I have been doing this year.

When I considered the idea of replacing this chat with a Books Read Diary I decided that I should reconsider the approach and to use the Covers concept to list books that are on my near-term target.

I will introduce such a visual display in my next post.

My slightly revised Books on Hold in Libby, as of 10-02. Hoping to find some Memorable Books there.

The Covenant of Water, House of Doors, and more Murakami are on my "sooner rather than later" list too.

I have been reading, or partially reading from Books on Hold in Libby, as of 10-02. Hoping to find some Memorable books among them.

I have been trying to devise a succinct way to describe the results of my reading. In thinking this issue over there are several factors to consider:

(1) I am not a 'reviewer' by nature. There are many very qualified members of LT who provide valuable reviews.
(2) My reasons for giving a rating, say 4.5, to a book doesn't mean anything about what other readers think. Someone looking for a book rating should simply use the Average Rating for the book.
(3) In spite of (1) and (2) I owe something to other readers about how I personally reacted to the book

These thoughts led me to a concept of 'one-liners.'

Such statements would very briefly present what about the book was determinant in my enjoyment, or disappointment in the book. These statements would only be understandable if my comment was read by someone who knows about the book from publisher blurbs, or other reader reviews.

In thinking through how to display key information about the books I read, it became clear to me that I need to display the factors I use in choosing to read a specific book. These factors are:

1. The Average Rating across all readers.
   
2. Designation as a Literary Mystery.
   
3. Designation as Literary Fiction.
   
4. Which Subject Tag-Genres are Contained.
   

These factors are not ranked by importance. When I consider a book to read, I want to know if it is a literary mystery. If the book doesn't qualify then I will see if it is Literary Fiction. I will still be interested in a book if the average rating is 4+.

It is obvious that many excellent books fail this testing sequence, but it must be remembered that I am simply looking for a book out of my 500 TBR that stands an excellent chance of being great interest to me. With my current TBR there are about 190 books which pass these tests.

You might have noticed that I didn't bring subject tag-genres into my selection process. They provide me the final support to focus on a book that 'fits my mood/interests' today.

A primary way I use those special tags is simply to count the number of my 38 favorite tags for a book. My most favorite books of all time have a considerable number of tags because they are very broad and usually not highly focused. In my current list there are about 75 books which have 10, or more tags.

The individual average rating is used to draw my attention to those books which have a high tag count and then I look at the subject tag-genres to see which ones match my current interest.

For example, I love books-about-books so I could choose a highly rated book with that attribute.

There is another factor that comes into play within my book choices. You are all aware about @DeltaQueen and her reading for balance and focus.

I too aspire to that concept, so I search for books in the Literary Fiction group of books which don't necessarily have a high tag count. Within that group
I use the average rating of 4+ and the tag-genres I am interested in.

In an additional attempt at balance, I evaluate the books on my near-term reading list to determine if my interest in more minor tag-genres has been fulfilled. If not, I search for the highest average rated books on the tag-genre of interest to me.

All of these efforts can produce an excellent, and interesting set of books to read. The books that I have 'read' from my current list that I call My Holds on Libby will be detailed in my next posting.

This morning I was in the midst of reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese and totally engrossed so I decide to take a look at the book page in LT. I learned a lot about the author and the book which confirmed why the book seemed to be a masterpiece in my opinion.

In the interest of finding other books that I might enjoy equally well, I clicked on the LibraryThing Reccomendations. I was rather surprised to see 10 books being recommended, and I had read, or planned to read all 10 books.

I then selected to retrieve the top 60 books on the expanded list. That complete list is displayed below.



What you can't see in this display is the fact that I have read, or plan to read 49 of the 60 books on the list!

It seems to me that I should get started on the missing 11 books if I want to enjoy my reading time the most.

Does anyone know why this list is tied to my reading so well?

There are several books on the list, like: Redhead by the Side of the Road and Mad Honey that certainly are not commonly compared to other very notable books on the list.

Does a different member end up with a similar list to mine?

Whatever the answers to such questions, I plan to pursue the 11 books I haven't yet read.

I just ran an experiment by looking at The Covenant of Water recommendations in a library which only has that book in it. The 60 books recommended when my current library was used is duplicated in the empty library!

This means that the books I have been reading actually can be considered related to this Covenant book. Thus, I should absolutely look at those 11 unread books for sure.

Somehow my process for selecting books to read must be working well for me.

This post is in development as I report on books I recently read.

>96 JoeB1934: After reading your post, I went and looked at my list of LT recommendations. It was rather disappointing, because it seemed to skew heavily toward books in my collection that I read decades ago when I went through a fantasy/sci fi phase. Every book ever written by Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, and Raymond Feist was clogging up the list. I went through and marked them "no, thanks!" so perhaps the LT algorithm will update the list with more interesting titles.

>100 labfs39: Did you use the Recommendations available at the Home menu? My example was those at the book page for The Covenant of Water. You have mentioned that you are interested in that book.

How many of the books you have read are on that list?

I have learned from this and prior experiences that the LT recommendations are a major clue about my liking the book. If I get a list for a book that doesn't show any that I have read, it doesn't mean I shouldn't read the book. Instead, it would say that my reading the book would mean that I am diversifying my reading, which can be a good thing.

When I do a search for my next book to read, they often are from a new author, but the plot intrigues me, or they are high on the average rating basis.

At all times they must be either of a literary fiction, or a literary mystery designation.

Speaking of The Covenant of Water that book will be my next Memorable Books of 2023. I haven't written it up yet, but it is a majestic book for me.

After I discuss that book, I plan to describe several books which I recently read that were all good but fell short of the memorable designation.

Primary Tag Genres: Literature,Mystery,Literary-Fiction,Historical-Fiction,Family,Relationships,Scotland,Art,Religion

I am perplexed how to describe this book, so I make reference to part of a review by another LT member.

samba7 "What makes a great novel?

Wonderful and believable characters?
Tremendous plotting and compelling narrative?
Transportation to lands and places unknown until you can visualize, taste, smell and feel what the characters are described as doing?
Prose that sings off the page and engages the reader utterly"

This book has all of these and is truly a great novel.

I simply can't add anything to that statement. I consider this book to be one of the most memorable of my reading life.

I have been continuing to re-evaluate the list of books that I want to read near-term. As of 10-05 these are the books.

>101 JoeB1934: Oh, I did do it from the homepage. I'll have to try again.

>103 JoeB1934: Of these I've only read Pachinko, which I enjoyed. I'm very much looking forward to The House of Doors, as I've enjoyed his other two books very much.

Recent books I read.

>106 JoeB1934: How did you like The Bone Clocks, Joe? I have it but haven't read it. I liked Cloud Atlas quite a bit, but found The Thousand Autumns only so so.

>107 labfs39: I am about to comment on my reactions to these books.

>96 JoeB1934: when i go to that book, i get the same list of “combined” recommendations, at least the 1st ten or so are the same. My impression is recent award list and also somewhat popular books of literary fiction. That is, I think it may not be tied to your reading except by chance. These are the kind of books you tend to like. Maybe. It’s a nice list.

>106 JoeB1934: I’m listening to Theses Precious Days now. I’m smitten. (Nearly done, sadly).

I identified the books in my recent reading that I assign a personal rating of 5-Stars. They are:



Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson
"A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, with everything that readers love about her novels—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop."

This book by my most favorite author displays all of her talents and is a worthy addition to her production. It falls short of my inclusion as a Memorable book because I am actually not a fan of short stories, so a 5 Star for me.

One Drum by Richard Wagamese
"The most profound truth in the universe is that we are all one drum and we need each other.” ―Richard Wagamese, One Drum Fans of Richard Wagamese’s writing will be heartened by the news that the bestselling author left behind a manuscript he’d been working on until shortly before his death in 2017. One Drum welcomes readers to unite in ceremony to heal themselves and bring harmony to their lives and communities. "

These stories illustrate how the indigent occupants of America possessed a most wonderful sense of place for humans on earth. Oh, if only all current inhabitants attained these beliefs.

These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

"At the center of These Precious Days is the title essay, a surprising and moving meditation on an unexpected friendship that explores “what it means to be seen, to find someone with whom you can be your best and most complete self.
From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark."

This author has written a very emotional and honest portrayal of key events and individuals in her life. In doing so we can better understand the immense talent she possesses.

I identified the books in my recent reading that I assign a personal rating of 4-Stars. They are:



Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The premise of the book starts off with a young boy of incredible imagination that is applying his instincts to connect with his father, who died in the 9/11 event. Grandparents and their short stories are also brought into the events described. The details of the plot rely heavily on magical-Realism and I was never able to connect emotionally with the individuals in the story. I was especially interested in the boy's story but found it to be interrupted by the details from other family/friends. If the book simply stuck with the boy I would have been enthralled./b

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. I simply never was able to finish the book because of the Dystopian dimensions.

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis
While Marion is thrilled to join the famed Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall as a dancer in 1956, there are more lows than she expected. When a serial bomber strikes the theater, she feels compelled to search out the bomber herself. But will it be at the risk of everything she's worked for? Despite the basically interesting plot, I simply never developed an interest in how everything worked out. I am currently only interested in stories that hold my interest to the end.

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
When X—an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter—falls dead in her office, her widow, wild with grief and refusing everyone’s good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM, her wife, knew where X had been born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction.

This is a very innovative and literary accomplishment, which I had to abandon when there is described a very dystopian view of the United States that comes extremely close to my current fear about the direction of democracy in our country.

It is VERY important not to downgrade these books in your reading. They are all 4+ star books and each of them have numerous 5-Star ratings by other readers.

On a different day I might well have enjoyed these books a lot, but my current situation results in my looking for books that meet my personal needs near term.

Take the fact that I even selected these books for serious consideration as a vote in their favor as I have about 150 books under consideration.

>109 dchaikin: I have come to the conclusion that the list of books is a very accurate summary of the specific books I prefer. The fact that I have read 49 of the top 60 books on the list is stunning to me.

Recently I have been testing prospective new books by looking at that statistic on the new book to see if there are matches with books I have read. At this time, I'm not sure how I will proceed with that approach. Something to think about.

By the way I wonder how many of the ten books have you read personally? From what I know about your reading I would not be surprised if there aren't many.

That is the beauty of reading. Each of us can choose for ourselves and it doesn't mean anyone else is missing out on good books for themselves.

I’ve read 2 of the 1st ten and ten of the full list of 60.

The two from the top ten were The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (which I adored on audio) and Trust by Hernan Diaz (which I thought well done, on audio, but don’t have any emotional attachment to).

>113 dchaikin: Thanks for that input. I'm not surprised at the 2/10, and the 10/60 works out to be what I could surmise from reading your postings.

I am more intensely interested in whatever those 60 books imply, but you read far more books that I don't delve into.

Also, I haven't finished reading Trust yet but I haven't been able to establish that emotional attachment either. That emotional attachment is key to my choice of books that I enjoy. Classical history doesn't ring with me unless there is a character that I can enjoy hearing about. It doesn't exactly have to be empathy, but that is part of what Ilike.

>114 JoeB1934: Trust gets better. There’s a lot going on that you can’t see yet. 🙂

>107 labfs39: At the time you inquired about this book I thought I was close to reporting on all of my new books. Like most of my projections other events have caused me to delay my plans.

Here are my thoughts about The Bone Clocks.

The book qualified on most of my tag-genre rankings. It is very high in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Magical Realism categories, which I am a fan of to some degree, but only if they seem to match my interest. One cautionary flag is that the Average Rating is about 3.8, which is at the lower end of what I prefer for a rating.

I did read far enough into the book that I could see that it had a good literary quality for me, and the premise of the plot was intriguing. As other storylines developed, I couldn't maintain my interest and I have so many excellent books on my hold list that I abandoned the book.

In summary, the book didn't hold me, but it could work for you.

What book in this general area did I love? It was Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow, with average rating of 4+.

I haven't had time to diagnose what about that book captured me.

>116 JoeB1934: Thanks for taking the time to write up your thoughts on The Bone Clocks. I think I'll leave it languishing on the shelves.

>117 labfs39: I am sorry that I took so long, but I finally did post more thoughts on my 4-star and 5-star books whose covers were displayed in earlier posts.

This experience listing books, and then later composing thoughts about them is a non-starter with me and my memory.! From now on I plan to bypass the comments altogether, or list them contemporaneously.

In the spirit of my previous post here is my current reading.



The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig 4-Stars

One of my earliest favorite authors is Ivan Doig. This came about when I discovered his book Dancing at the Rascal Fair which tied together a story starting in Scotland and ending in Montana. My ancestors started in Scotland and ended in Wyoming, but the immigrations were in a similar time period. Later I discovered Kent Haruf and William Kent Krueger.

These authors have each written with great quality about the lives of boys in a prairie environment and a relevant time period and sociological situation. Their literary quality is widely recognized and very rewarding even if you don't have my background.

This book is the only one in any of their production that I give a 4-star rating instead of a 5-star. I'm not sure why this one was a little less rewarding except that the language of the main character was much more sophisticated than existed in my life, or in the other books by these authors.

As I am won't to do, I have focused on the set of books which I have holds on in Libby. If everything went as planned, which never does, I will be reading these books in the coming months.

There are 27 books on this list, and being realistic that would be about six months of reading. An important factor is that I vastly prefer audio books, and many are on long term holds.

The books are ordered by their individual Average Rating so that can be important to availability. In that regard I am currently reading In The Distance and finding it engrossing.

>120 JoeB1934: House of Doors comes out on audio next week (Oct 17)

>121 dchaikin: Yes, and I have it on hold and will be one of the first to get it here in Denver. In some cases where the wait is measured in many weeks, I use audible to get the book, but not in this case.

I had a fall on Saturday and surgery for a broken hip yesterday so some weeks of rehab. I probably will be reading books but will still report as I move aloon.

>123 JoeB1934: Oh no, Joe! I'm so sorry to hear about your fall. I have titanium and ceramic hips, so I can relate to the rehab. Good luck and take care!

>124 labfs39: thanks for that, you obviously know about the pain. i just have a metal ball, which i understand is less rehab than full hips, it's good that I always focus on audio.

All the best for a smooth rehab.

>126 rocketjk: Thanks. Looks good for now