Book Blogger Hop: August 30th - September 5th: "320 Changes Direction" Is a Support Group for Friends and Family Members of Individuals with Mental Illness

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Have you ever enjoyed the same book in two or more formats (print, eBook, or audiobook)?

I have not, for the simple reason that I don't really consume books in any format other than print. I have read some short fiction in electronic format, but I have never read an entire book that way, and that is unlikely to change any time in the near future. I have written before about my inability to follow books in audiobook format, so I have never actually "read" a book in audio format.

Basically, the answer to this question is no because I almost never read anything other than print books.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: "319" Is a Song on the Prince Album "The Gold Experience"

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Area Code for Cape Canaveral Is 3-2-1 (Liftoff!)

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: October 17, 1981 through October 31, 1981.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: October 17, 1981 through November 7, 1981.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: Never.

One of the interesting things about doing something like the 1980s Project is that it serves to highlight just how much influence the film and television industry have upon popular music. Arthur's Theme was the theme song for the Dudley Moore comedy Arthur, and while the song is good, I am certain that it's connection to one of the highest grossing movies of 1981 helped it secure the top spot on the charts. The fact that the song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song probably helped to cement it into the popular consciousness.

The song itself matches the movie pretty well. Arthur's Theme is a gentle, kind of laid back song that basically advocates throwing your hands up and accepting what life offers you. Arthur is about a wealthy drunk layabout who more or less takes life as it comes to him, but is affable and good-natured throughout. The movie kind of glorifies being an alcoholic, but Arthur is a friendly and congenial drunk, and so it gets away with it.

One should also be reminded that Arthur's Theme is not an aberration when it comes to songs connected with movies having success on the charts. This was the third song connected with a movie to reach the number one spot in 1981 - the other two being 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton and the other being Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. The Theme from the Greatest American Hero by Joey Scarbury, the theme song to the television show Greatest American Hero, also reached number one on the charts. These four songs spent a combined total of 17 weeks at the top spot on the U.S. charts.

Being attached to a movie or television show seems to be good for songs.

Previous Musical Monday: It's My Party by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin

Subsequent Musical Monday: Private Eyes by Hall and Oates

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Private Eyes by Hall and Oates

Previous #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie

Subsequent #1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Private Eyes by Hall and Oates

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Christopher Cross     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop August 23rd - August 29th: "319" Is a Song on the Prince Album "The Gold Experience"

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: How do you choose the next book to read?

I don't really have a system for choosing the next book to read. I have a bunch of books that are in the "to read soon" pile, and I usually pick a book from that set, but there's no real rhyme or reason to each selection. If I am going to a convention or an event where a particular author is appearing, I might push one of their books to the top of my reading pile, and during Hugo Award season I usually try to get through the nominated works so as to be able to cast an informed vote.

Even this amount of description makes the process I use for choosing books to read seem less chaotic than it actually is. Essentially, once a book gets into my library, my intention is to read it, even if that intention won't get fulfilled for several years, so the process of choosing which of my books to read next is of comparatively minor importance. Consequently, I tend to read whatever strikes my fancy at that moment, knowing I will get to the other books on my shelves at some future time.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The Mass of Jupiter Is Approximately 318 Times Greater Than the Mass of Earth

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: "320 Changes Direction" Is a Support Group for Friends and Family Members of Individuals with Mental Illness

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - It's My Party by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: October 17, 1981 through November 7, 1981.

This is an electronica remake of Leslie Gore's 1963 hit, and it is weird. Not only is the music changed to electronic pop, through most of the song the beat is at a languid pace, giving the tune a kind of surreal sounding feel. Just when you think you've adjusted to the changed tempo of the music, it suddenly accelerates again in a somewhat disorienting manner. The oddness is compounded by the fact that Gaskin's voice is not nearly as strong as Gore's was, so if you've heard the original, you probably end up mentally comparing the two, and the comparison does Gaskin no favors. I can't say this is a good cover version of the song, but it isn't really terrible either. It is just strange, and to a certain extent, unnecessary.

For some reason this song stayed at the top of the U.K. chart for four weeks. Granted, it only had the tepid competition of Adam and the Ants' song Prince Charming to beat out to reach that spot, but the fact that this song was ascendant for a month is somewhat puzzling. The lyrics aren't particularly interesting, and the cover version isn't really a particularly danceable song. The arrangement is mildly interesting, but not overly so. There's just not much here that stands out as being really good about this version of It's My Party, so I can only surmise that it just served to fill up space until something better came along.

Previous Musical Monday: Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants

Subsequent Musical Monday: Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by the Police

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Dave Stewart     Barbara Gaskin     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Musical Monday - Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: September 19, 1981 through October 10, 1981.

I have to say that I am kind of at a loss. I didn't understand the appeal of Adam and the Ants in the 1980s, and I don't understand the band's appeal now. Their music was mediocre, their esthetic simultaneously pretentious and juvenile, and their look silly without being cool. I am completely mystified by their popularity.

Further, while this song was number one in the U.K., Endless Love was still dominating the U.S. charts. While Endless Love wasn't groundbreaking, and probably stayed at the top of the U.S. charts longer than was really warranted, it was a better song than this one. Not only that, this song somehow knocked Tainted Love off the top of the U.K. charts, which is entirely baffling. The fact that Prince Charming went on to stay in the number one spot in the U.K. for an entire month is completely inexplicable.

Previous Musical Monday: Tainted Love by Soft Cell

Subsequent Musical Monday: It's My Party by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin

Previous Musical Monday: Tainted Love by Soft Cell

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: It's My Party by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Adam and the Ants     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop August 9th - August 15th: The Mass of Jupiter Is Approximately 318 Times Greater Than the Mass of Earth

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: What authors do you always read and recommend?

1. Kelly Sue DeConnick
2. Tom Doyle
3. Kameron Hurley
4. N.K. Jemisin
5. Alethea Kontis
6. Naomi Kritzer
7. Ursula K. Le Guin
8. Ann Leckie
9. Andre Norton
10. Sarah Pinsker

Previous Book Blogger Hop: The 317 Coalition Advocates for Increasing the Federal Funding for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: "319" Is a Song on the Prince Album "The Gold Experience"

Book Blogger Hop     Home

Musical Monday - Tainted Love by Soft Cell

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: September 5, 1981 through September 12, 1981.

Tainted Love is one of the first songs to reach number one that I recollect as being unequivocally identifiable as a product of the 1980s. There had definitely been quintessentially 1980s groups with number one hits prior to this point - Blondie for example. Hall and Oates for another. But their previous songs had clearly had roots in the prior decade. This one is definitively from the 1980s.

The other thing about Tainted Love is that pretty much everything about the song is memorable, from the hard hitting beat, to the wandery lyrics, to the nigh insane video that seems to mostly feature a man yelling at a little girl amidst a collection of people wearing a hodge-podge of period costumes.

I remember listening to this song on the radio in my grandmother's car. She drove a huge brown sedan - I think it was a Bonneville - and my family was visiting my grandparents in the summer, returning from the heat of Africa to spend time in the Virginia heat in the middle of August. We were in a parking lot, headed to pick something up, probably at a local drugstore, and it was beastly hot and humid. The car was cool, with the air conditioning putting in extra work to keep it that way, but what made me want to stay and sit after we had parked was the song. I remember being fascinated by it because it wasn't really like anything I had ever heard. I made my grandmother sit with the car idling until the song ended, and then we stepped out into the sun.

Previous Musical Monday: Japanese Boy by Aneka

Subsequent Musical Monday: Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Japanese Boy by Aneka

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Prince Charming by Adam and the Ants

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Soft Cell     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

Book Blogger Hop August 2nd - August 8th: The 317 Coalition Advocates for Increasing the Federal Funding for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jen at Crazy for Books restarted her weekly Book Blogger Hop to help book bloggers connect with one another, but then couldn't continue, so she handed the hosting responsibilities off to Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. The only requirements to participate in the Hop are to write and link a post answering the weekly question and then visit other blogs that are also participating to see if you like their blog and would like to follow them.

This week Billy asks: Do you own more than one copy of a book?

There are many books of which I own more than one copy. Most of the duplicate copies that I own were unintentionally acquired, usually because I forgot I owned a particular book and bought it again. I have been going through my collection over the past several months identifying and culling these duplicate books, so their number has been reduced considerably.

There is a very small handful of books that I have intentionally bought second copies of, mostly because I have a fancy copy and want to have a reading copy available as well.

Previous Book Blogger Hop: "316" Was an Instrumental Track on the Van Halen Album "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"

Subsequent Book Blogger Hop: The Mass of Jupiter Is Approximately 318 Times Greater Than the Mass of Earth

Book Blogger Hop     Home