Column: For famous orange tree, it’s nothin’ but net

Riverside’s claim to citrus fame comes from the parent Washington navel orange tree, the 1873 tree that launched a California industry. The tree continues to thrive despite a bacteria-carrying insect that could kill it if it got in striking range. That’s why a tent-like structure now shrouds the tree: to keep the insect out. I pay a visit for Friday’s column.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email

Reading Log: January 2021

Books acquired: “The Bookman’s Wake,” John Dunning; “Highway 99: a literary journey through California’s Great Central Valley,” Stan Yogi, ed.; “Desert Oracle, Vol. 1,” Ken Layne; “East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte,” Romeo Guzman, ed.

Books read: “King Kull,” Robert E. Howard and Lin Carter; “The Prince and the Pauper,” Mark Twain; “Emperor Fu Manchu (Fu Manchu #13),” Sax Rohmer; “A Princess of Mars (John Carter #1),” Edgar Rice Burroughs; “The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper (Travis McGee #10),” John D. MacDonald

Welcome to 2021’s first Reading Log! If you’re joining us late, I post each month about what books I read the previous month, as well as which ones I acquired. There is rarely overlap. The backlog of unread books is strong with this one.

(I began the year with, gulp, 225 unread books, a total that dropped only one by month’s end, based on reading five but acquiring four. Still, 225 is far better than the mortifying 555 of a decade ago…)

Some months I make a little game out of things by choosing books whose titles seem related. In a neat trick, I managed to do that in January — four books have royalty in their titles, while the fifth is almost a joke about that — while also advancing some reading goals.

One goal: resume reading Edgar Rice Burroughs after more than four years away. Another: resume reading John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series after three years away. A third: read the final Fu Manchu novel, 10 years to the month after starting them. A fourth: keep on reading Mark Twain’s fiction, in this case his third novel (after “The Gilded Age” and “Tom Sawyer,” both read in 2020). And a fifth: knock off my last five unread books from 2002. More on all that after the summaries.

“King Kull” (1967): I hadn’t read any REH since boyhood, some four decades ago, and I wondered what I’d think of him now, and of Kull, always a distant second in the comics to Conan. Kull was like that in the pulps too, apparently, but these stories have energy, atmosphere and philosophy of sorts about power, with some Lovecraftian touches in the descriptions. Perhaps these were closer to REH’s heart.

“Prince and the Pauper” (1881): A fabulous concept, in which nearly identical boys change clothes and thus stations in life, with a moral lesson in good behavior and our essential equality. Twain, who loved a meandering narrative, may never have plotted a story this tightly or ingeniously before or after. He must’ve known he’d discovered gold.

“Emperor Fu Manchu” (1959): The final Fu Manchu novel is set in China, which I think is new. The rest of the formula remains intact, including chaste romance between a giddy secret agent and a bewitching woman of the East. The showdown between Fu and Sir Denis is memorable, with the latter admitting that the two arch-foes share a goal of eradicating communism (!). Enjoyable pulp trash, if less inventive than the earlier entries.

“A Princess of Mars” (1912): ERB got off to a great start in 1912, creating Tarzan and his other great, if less well-known, series character, John Carter, a Virginian who becomes warlord of Mars. This “science romance” fired the imagination of Ray Bradbury and many others. Sure, John Carter’s mysterious transport to Mars, er, Barsoom remains confounding — something about passing out in a vapor-ridden cave, floating out of his body and whizzing to Mars — but who cares? This melding of swordplay, adventure, science fiction and romance is still highly enjoyable more than a century later.

“The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper” (1968): “No black is going to grieve about some nice sweet dedicated unprejudiced liberal being yanked out of his Buick and beaten to death, because there have been a great many nice humble ingratiating hardworking blacks beaten to death too.” MacDonald wrote that in 1968 (this was published Dec. 1 that year) and it rings just as true post-George Floyd. The McGee books, about a boat-bum private eye/”salvage consultant” in Florida who has a way with the ladies, are pretty consistent, I think, but “Brown” strikes me as one of the better entries, with prescient lines like the above elevating the whole thing.

“Prince” was the best of the bunch, and why shouldn’t it be? I got a kick out of every book this month, which isn’t always the case. “Wrapper” is slightly ahead of the pack.

So, 2021. I’ve let the McGee and ERB novels languish, until those two authors are the ones I own the most unread books by (leaving aside the 15 of 38 Shakespeare plays unread): 14 ERBs, 12 McGees. Inspired by Reading Log stalwart Doug Evans, who’s been reading a Ross Macdonald mystery each month, and did the same earlier with the Jack Reacher series, I’m going to see if I can’t read an ERB and a McGee each month. OK, probably not each month. But for at least half the months this year. (Repetition may set in and require breaks.)

I hope to also read two or three more Twains, a literary anthology or two, more long-lived books from my shelves including the remaining four from 2002, at least four Shakespeare plays and a few gifts that have piled up, to my shame. Who knows, this whole plan, such as it is, may fade by March, but I’m already close to finishing an ERB for February. Also, after 2020 saw me read only one more fiction book than nonfiction, I’m hoping that will be more like 2/3-1/3 in favor of fiction this year.

Where and when did I acquire these books? Not in January 2021, that’s for sure. “Prince” was bought at Book Treasures in Long Beach in 1996, about which I have zero recollection. My college Shakespeare omnibus aside, this was the last unread book on my shelves purchased in the 20th century. That’s progress.

“Kull” came from a vendor at the San Diego Comic Con in 2002; “Emperor” was bought in the ’00s, I think off eBay; “Princess” and most of the other Mars books by ERB were bought at the annual Black Ace Paperback Show in 2011; and “Wrapper” is comparatively recent, from Powell’s Books in 2019.

This was a satisfying month with all five choices representing long-awaited books finally read and a full three series resumed (with one finished).

How was your January, readers? Do you have any reading goals for 2021 that you’d care to share, at the risk of being held to them? Let us know in the comments, please.

Next: another ERB, interviews with two cultural figures and more.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Plusone Linkedin Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email