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BigJohnLefty

From Des Moines, Iowa USA
Age 68
Joined Monday, October 28, 2002
Recent Book Activity
Statistics
4 weeks all time
books registered 0 910
released in the wild 0 737
controlled releases 0 622
releases caught 0 349
controlled releases caught 0 596
books found 0 449
tell-a-friend referrals 0 50
new member referrals 0 4
forum posts 0 372
Extended Profile
I've been a bit out of the loop over the past several months, mainly due to having surgery for pancreatic cancer, and am currently still receiving chemotherapy treatments.

Where do I get my books from? from serendipity, really.....
Planned Parenthood Book Sale (twice a year, last day when everything's 75% off)
Half Price Books
Library Sale shelves (in all branches throughout the metro)
Book Trader in Newton
Flea Markets and Garage Sales
Beaverdale Books (locally owned)
Dollar Tree stores every where (you'd be surprised what you'll find for a buck!)
The Book Vault in Oskaloosa
....and any quaint little shop I spot while traveling!

Last year saw the demise of two long-standing sources of books in the DSM area...
The BookStore (downtown)
Well Read Books (a two-story house in the Sherman Hill area)
both will be sorely missed!


HAVE STARTED UP TWO NEW CD AUDIOBOOKBOXES - PM ME IF INTERESTED AND I CAN ADD YOUR NAME TO THE LIST FOR EITHER ONE OF THEM

BigJohnLefty's Another AUDIOBOOKBOX

Tentative order:

BOOKWORMINUSALL, AZ
rebekkila, MI

JudySlump612, MN<---here now!
dabercro, UT
booklady331, FL
azuki, FL
imawinn, WI
jlautner, CA
hyphen8, HI
LittleWhiteBird, CA
HI77, FL

then back to me!!




BigJohnLefty's AUDIOBOOKBOX

KateKintail, VA
Moody-Blue, OK

Weiterferne, TX<---here now!
Keno-mom, TX
Olered, OR
Aberpeter, WA
HI77, FL
Azuki, FL
....then back to me (BigJohnLefty, IA)




Have read the following books this year :



The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. finished 1/8/16
1776 by David McCullough finished 1/12/16
The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker currently reading
La Colmena by Camilo Jose Cela currently reading
Beyond Outrage by Robert Reich finished 1/13/16 - bookray from PokPok, going to LittleWhiteBird
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith finished 1/15/16 -- RABCK to camperfan as part of monthly contest 3/12/16!
The Eastern Stars by Mark Kurlansky finished 1/16/16
The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth finished 2/2/16 -- surprise RABCK to teachermotivator on 3/12/16!!
The Pension Plan by Jerry Hooten finished 1/19/16 -- RABCKed to lisabb2 on 2/6/16
Setting Free the Bears by John Irving currently reading
Gather Together in my Name by Maya Angelou finished 2/28/16 - looking for a home




And as one of my goals for the new year, I'm committing to reading the following ten books from the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" List, which just happen to be on my bookshelf:


La Colmena by Camilo Jose Cela currently reading

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

Billy Bathgate by E.L. Doctorow

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Jazz by Toni Morrison

The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker currently reading




Have joined the World-Wide Book Challenge and have selected these so far:
NORTH AMERICA: 1776 (USA), The Eastern Stars (Dominican Republic),
SOUTH AMERICA:
ASIA: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (Iran), An Unexpected Light (Afghanistan),
AFRICA: Say You're One of Them (Nigeria),The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana)
OCENIA:
EUROPE: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russia), The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain), Long Time No See by Dermot Healy (Ireland), The Quality of Mercy (England), Setting Free the Bears by John Irving (Austria),



Books read in 2015:

Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond by Larry McMurtry finished 12/31/15 -- wild released to Little Free Library
Blessings by Anna Quindlen finished 12/25/15 - RABCKed to Icila
Post Office by Charles Bukowski finished 12/21/15 - RABCKed to vestalpt
RL's Dream by Walter Mosley finished 12/24/15 -- RABCKed to bkind2books
And the Last Shall Be First by Kurt Warner finished 12/23/15 - RABCKed to youngest brother
Where or When by Anita Shreve finished 12/20/15 -- RABCKed to bkind2books
A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds finished 12/20/15 -- RABCKED to bkind2books
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes finished 12/19/15
Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan finished 12/18/15 -- RABCKED to bkind2books
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe finished 12/18/15
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. finished 12/17/15 - RABCKed to JudySlump612
TimeQuake by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. finished 12/12/15 -- RABCKED to bkind2books
The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith finished 12/04/2015 -- RABCKED to bkind2books
City of God by E.L. Doctorow finished and released
Bunts by George F. Will finished and gave to friend
October 1964 by David Halberstam finished and gave to little brother

I don't know where the last year went, but I know I read some books in 2014, but just can't remember what they were......


Have read the following books in 2013:


Liberating Paris by Linda Bloodworth Thomason finished 11/2/2013 -- RABCKed to glory-to-glory
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley finished 10/22/13 -- RABCKed to BKind2Books
The Other Parent by James P. Steyer finished 10/13/13 RABCKed to BKind2Books
Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov Finished 10/6/13..... looking for a home.....
Okoboji:Puppet Show of Memory by C.E. Holmes finished 9/27/13 RABCKed to BKind2Books
Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley finished 9/24/13 -- to msssaver via bookstogive's VBB
Cruel Doubt by Joe McGinniss finished 9/19/13 -- RABCKed to BKind2Books
The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds finished 9/11/13 -- RABCKed to lisabb2
John L. Lewis Labor Leader by Robert H. Zieger finished 9-7-13, RABCKed to lisabb2
Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley finished 9-1-13 RABCKed to bookczuk
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac finished 10/5/13 RABCKed to spfldjohn
Naming the Spirits by Lawrence Thornton finsihed 8-29-13,RABCKed to bookczuk
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac finished 8/22/13, RABCKed to spfldjohn
A Shining Affliction by Annie G. Rogers, Ph.D. finished 8/25/13 -- RABCKed to bookczuk
Everyman by Phillip Roth finished 8-19 - Rabcked to ciloma
Consider This Senora by Harriet Doerr finished 8/16 -- RABCKed to bookczuk
My New American Life by Francine Prose finished 8/8/13 - RABCKed to bookczuk
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smithfinished 8/2/13 -- RABCKed to ciloma
Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut finished 7/27/13 -- RABCKed to bookczuk
The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinodfinished 7/18/13 -- RABCKed to bookczuk
God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut finished 7/7/13 -- RABCKED to bookstogive
The Tyranny of Email by John Freeman finished 7/3/13 -- RABCKED to bookstogive
Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson MDfinished 6-21-13 - RABCKED to bookstogive
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson MD finished 6-16-13 - keeping for now
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegutfinished 6/13/13 - RABCKED to bookstogive
Odd Man Out by Matt McCarthy finished 6-10 -- RABCKED to bookstogive
Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck finished 6/5/13 - RABCKed to spfldjohn
In The Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith finished 5/30/13 - RABCKed to iwillrejoice
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut finished 5/28/13 - RABCKed to Bulan-Purnama
Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley finished 5/22/13 - RABCKed to Bulan-Purnama
Embracing the Wide Sky by Daniel Tammet finished 5/14/13 - RABCKed to Bkind2books
I Want Candy by Kim Wong Keltner finished 4/24/13 - RABCKed to Bkind2books
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith finished 4/24/13 - RABCKed to Bkind2books
On The Road The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac finished 4/19/13 RABCKed to spfldjohn
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. finished 4/21/13 - RABCKed to Bkind2books


What Kind of books do I like to read? My lists will tell you I like quite a bit of different stuff, leaning toward fiction and literature, but favoring a bit of non-fiction here and there too. Many things just come to me by serendipity, they just happen to call out to me when I'm out browsing around, though I do sometimes seek out certain particular authors I've developed an affinity for over the years. I also find myself gravitating toward trade paperbacks rather than mass market ones, and if I see something by an author who's had an earlier book in the Oprah Book Club, or has won a Pen or Booker award, I'm likely to snag it.


I've got plenty of RABCK's, Journals and rings out there that are Missing In Action, and/or unjournaled, but I'm not anal enough to harangue people over books that have been set free anyway; I've got bigger fish to fry.....

If PM's are not going through, you can email me at: [email protected]


Places locally where I've wild-released:

Panera Bread, 86th St., Urbandale (Des Moines area bookcrossers used to meet here, but the sign has been taken down, and I'm not sure how active it is anymore.....)
Starbucks at 10th & Locust
Little Free Libraries on the east side of Des Moines

When in Omaha (I travel there about every other month) I like to wild-release at:
13th Street Coffee in the Old Market area


I love doing RABCK's!


Anyone viewing my bookshelf who sees a book which is presently "available" is welcome to PM me with an address and I'll mail it to you.

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