I absolutely hated this book. I read it, or a large chunk of it, twenty years ago and I still have a visceral reaction to it. For #photoadaynov16, "Threw it Across the Room," I'm counting this... because I closed it in disgust and threw it directly into the garbage... something I've never done to any other book. It's staggeringly repugnant and bleak, bloated like a tick, full of its own modernist literary conceit.

"There was nothing to be done except what could be done. The rest--like the salt water around them which swallowed the snow without effort, remaining what it was implacably--was out of their hands, beyond."
It's been years since I read it, but I loved it. So haunting and atmospheric, so extremely evocative of place and time. My choice for "Set in a Small Town," #photoadaynov16

"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
In dark times, I think of this quote. If Anne could manage to feel this way in her situation, what right do I have to give in to despair or hopelessness? My pick for "Inspiring," #photoadaynov16

"Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice. Every time you don't crash your car, you reenlist."
Not every emotional reaction art generates is a pleasant one. Sometimes it makes you faintly sick, and questioning your choices. That's how I feel about Palahniuk. Still, Survivor is my "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" pick for #photoadaynov16

"Time lost can never be recovered," he said, "and this should be written in flaming letters everywhere." I'm not sure if it was comforting to read about a horrific tragedy that was in large part due to the hubris of people who thought it could never happen to them. Erik Larson is tremendous as always, though, and this took me into the 1900 Galveston hurricane as well as anything could.

New home state drivers license = local library card! This is the first book I pulled off the shelf today to check out, and I'm making it my #photoadaynov16 pick for "November TBR."

Funny stuff, as usual, if formulaic: setup, meat, jokey callback. It is a collection of newspaper columns, though. I did finally pinpoint the thing that sticks in my craw about Bryson: he tends to make people in service industries the butt of the joke, as if they're stupid/incompetent... instead of hardworking people who deal with a lot of bs all day from people who think they're superior to them. It bugs me, but then... I once worked in retail.

Literary edition of "I've Never." Copy and share this picture with the hashtag #IveNever and list something literary you've never done. Comment, if you like, if you have done mine. Despite my podcast obsession, which one might think is similar... I've never listened to an audiobook. ?

Thoroughly entertaining and extremely wry and funny... I have enjoyed many of Christopher Moore's books and this is my pick for #booktober "Supernatural Beings." I had difficulty with this one because I didn't want to have to return to Discworld... I don't read a huge amount of things that would qualify.

Well, I guess since I am working on not-completely-horrible skeleton makeup for work for Monday, I'll go with Death for #booktober "Character I'd Dress Up As." (Chose this artistic depiction because it features the wonderfully snarky Death of Rats also, haha.)

My wife majored in American Studies, with a particular focus on WWII. Her shelves definitely, definitely win this category... #booktober "Creepy Cover."

I am definitely a re-reader, and this is one I've read (and gifted) many times, indeed. It's like a western philosophy class that fits in your pocket, and is still such a magical little story. All Jostein Gaarder's books to me are like smart, pleasant little puzzle boxes. My battered copy is my pick for #booktober "Rereads."

Well, I was going to take a picture of this big, beautiful book for #booktober "I Like Big Books," but I realized that I can't even remove it from the bookcase without clearing off half the shelf. Sigh. This picture is a testament to how tired I am tonight...

I moved to the Bay Area this year from the East Coast, and it fulfilled a long-held dream of mine I never thought would come true. For #booktober "Wish I Could Be There," I will still pick San Francisco... but in a different time, the 1970s, as in Tales of the City, a series I've read and reread many times.

I don't think I could choose anything else for my #booktober "Fave Graphic Novels"... The Sandman series has a place of honor on my bookcase. I had very many of the original issues and, somewhere between high school (!) and the present day, replaced almost all of them with the graphic novels (with a few very treasured exceptions).

This book is tremendous. When I finished it, I remember I felt both humbled by the art and skill of the author and so deeply, satisfyingly drawn into the family and life of the protagonist. This is my pick for #booktober "Immigrant Stories."

I don't really snack while I read, so coffee in my favorite mug is my #booktober pick for "Reading Snacks." I do eat lunch at my desk most days, but I don't think that counts, haha.

Good book, but not finding it as useful for my purposes as I had hoped. All my work is in Python 2.7.x, not Python 3, and the differences are significant enough that this can't be my focus right now. Might circle back in the future.

"She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps, she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella." The eminently sensible Susan Sto Helit, seen here as portrayed by Michelle Dockery, is my #booktober pick for "Unforgettable Women." She is the person in Discworld with whom I identify most strongly, for sure.

I love Jasper Fforde, and this series is another of my absolute favorites. Not only is Thursday Next my pick for #booktober "Best Character Name," she is also a Literary Detective! (If you wish to begin the series, the first book is The Eyre Affair, I picked this one for the challenge because it so prominently features her name).

"Favorite Friendship" for #booktober: Esmerelda Weatherwax and Gytha Ogg, true "nasty women" of Lancre.

Apparently I don't have many books of short stories, really, but this will have to do for #booktober!

"A screaming comes across the sky." There are so many candidates for #booktober "Great First Lines" that it is hard to choose, but I do appreciate this one. My dog, however, does not appreciate me paying attention to something that is not him.

Recycling a #booktober pick... this was part of my "Text Only Covers" collage, and now it stands alone as my selection for "Award-Winning," since it won the Pulitzer. Reading this caused me to want to talk about it, which in turn meant I pulled an entire little lighthearted social gathering into a deep discussion of morality and humanity in the face of oblivion and gross inhumanity... basically, I'm fun at parties.

My #booktober selection for "Book Set in a School," because I had to pick something other than Harry Potter... and this novel is a chilling and subtle work of art.

I am sure this is not a unique selection at all, but I could think of no better #booktober choice for "Best Sidekick" than Dr. Watson. I have read the complete collection so many times, my copies are quite literally falling apart.

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements: my pick for #booktober "Long Title!" Really entertaining read, also, if you like popular science as much as I do (A LOT).

For #booktober, an extremely "Memorable Memoir," indeed. This one has always stuck with me.

Catching up on #booktober... "Out of This World." This is my pick because it's one of my all-time favorites, and I'm excited for the new film version!

While I'm reviewing Python books... this is another great one. If you like some dry wit and snark in your education, head for Zed Shaw. Some of the techniques in this are unfortunately deprecated, but overall it's good. His Command Line Crash Course is also quite badass and is the way a lot of folks I know (myself included) learned our way around Bash.

Two birds, one stone: this is my #booktober entry for "First Litsy Post." I quoted this book, which is 100% free to read online (the PDF can be downloaded, also)! Highly recommended... I just completed an advanced Python programming class and I started out with this book (and a few others). If you don't have a CS background, this will help you as a beginning programmer, and if you do, it will still fill in the gaps!

Belated #booktober "Diverse Reads": two good ones I grabbed from my shelves. This was a helpful reminder that I could stand to broaden my horizons more; most of the diversity in my collection is LGBT, not as much cultural/racial.

"Something Borrowed" for #booktober. This book has moved with me at least twice in five years, most recently from the East Coast to California, haha, and the person who loaned it refuses to take it back until I have read it. One day I finally will, I swear, and I will be able to return it.

This is my pick for #booktober "Full of Adventure." It may be a dark selection, but it was deeply affecting and left me breathless.

All this means, of course, is that statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or my underpants--to cite just two potentially lethal examples--than by a stranger, and, frankly, I don't find that comforting at all.

"There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand."

This is one of my all-time favorites and my pick for #booktober Debut Novel. @RealLifeReading

These are as close as I could come to bookmarks for #booktober. One is a card from a friend that was holding my place in Secrets and Lies and the other is an article about Leonard Cohen that a friendly regular at an old job thoughtfully printed out to give me. It's dated 2009, I don't know why it was tucked into a book on my shelf. I squirrel away personal notes like that, though. @RealLifeReading

#booktober "Text-Only Covers." I'm still playing catch-up. Three excellent books, though. @RealLifeReading

I'm not at all sure why, but I always found it strangely compelling to turn on the TV late at night and find a guy who looked as if he had bought all the clothes he would ever need during one shopping trip in 1973 (so that, presumably, he would be free to spend the rest of his waking hours around oscilloscopes) saying, in an oddly characterless voice, "And so we can see, adding two fixed-end solutions gives us another fixed-end solution."

"A veces amanezco, y hasta mi alma está húmeda./Sometimes I get up early and even my soul is wet."
This might be a slight stretch for #booktober Day 2: "Set in South America," but this is my beloved copy of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, borrowed from my first romance and never returned. Its pages are loose and it was already secondhand when I nicked it, dedicated with love from one stranger to another. @RealLifeReading

I'm a bit late getting started with #booktober, but these are absolutely my Most Anticipated Reads... the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. @RealLifeReading

Ellroy has a style, I'm just not sure if I like it. He has a vulgar, unflinching way of writing about his characters that makes nearly everyone unlikable. Reading him generates an appreciation for his skillful language, but a revulsion, too. It's like not being able to stop yourself from kicking a decaying fruit, even though you know it's going to burst and spill horror all over your nice shoes.

Nostalgia victimizes the unknowing by instilling in them a desire for a simplicity and innocence they can never achieve. The fifties weren't a more innocent time. The dark salients that govern life today were there then, only they were harder to find.

"For most readers, a few syntax errors are not a significant problem, which is why we can read the poetry of e. e. cummings without spewing error messages. Python is not so forgiving."