2012 Book Reviews

Last year's book contest with the BG, got me to wondering if I might be able to read 100 books this year. 81 was relatively easy, so it didn't seem like a big leap up to 100. I didn't want to give up the Economist or Entertainment Weekly, but I figured that I could assess progress after the first quarter and see if I wanted to or could push on towards the target. I've forgotten the exact number, and deleted the original Q1 library, but is was ahead of the goal, and I decided to go for it.

After the First Quarter, I started copying the titles, along with my notes on each text, into blog posts, and you can find those here with links to each title for Q2, Q3 and Q4. The complete 2012 library is also available here, but for convenience I've set out the titles below. I'm proud of the notes, though, because it's been challenging (and fun) to write reviews within the limit of 300 characters set by Google Books.

It's funny, looking back, how little I recall of certain books, and I'm having a hard time identifying a unifying theme or narrative thread for the year. I definitely read more children's books this year, mainly as a result of volunteering to lead a reading group in the BG's class.

I guess the most interesting thing in 2012 were the 19th century books, a period that I know relatively little about. I loved the President Garfield book (thank you Pat Fay), enjoyed the biography of president Harrison and the history of A&P (thank you chapel hill public library) and Taft 2012 (thank you Joy). I also really liked Hunter S. Thompson's coverage of the 1972 democratic primaries for Rolling Stone, about which I knew even less.

Of the three detective novels I read this year, I much preferred Chandler over Hammett, although all strained the levels of credulity.

Of the history/economics books, I liked 1493 better than 1491, mainly because the connections formed as a result of exploration are so fascinating. I also think I've read enough about the fishing industry for a while.

I was disappointed by most of the fiction, although I did enjoy the Lacuna, for its window into early twentieth century Mexico, and the Alice Munro for the beauty of her prose. Mrs. Dalloway was frightfully dull, and Pale Fire and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I found tedious and self-indulgent, each in their own way. But I tend toward non-fiction anyway, so take that for what it's worth.

I did not move on to Book II of either the Hunger Games or Game of Thrones, although I read both faster than anything else on the list, which says it all, in my view.

Nassim Taleb's new book was not as good as I'd hoped, although I do find myself quoting it often, and I do enjoy Matt Yglesias writing on zoning and other urban issues. Of the other economics books, I enjoyed their pervasive optimism for growth, although I didn't find any worthy of singling out here.

The final book I'll recommend is Stephen King's On Writing, which I found to be extremely insightful, as well as a poignant look at addiction and recovery.

For 2013, I envision more of the same, although I may watch a little more television and try to get to the movies more often. You can track what I've read for the year at this link. The first three things I'll be putting up there are Everything that Rises Must Converge (Thanks Worldwide), A Time of Gifts (Thanks Pat) and Wild Things (Thanks, Reading Group.)

Happy New Year!

Imagine: How Creativity Works	Jonah Lehrer
The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins
Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder	Evelyn Waugh
The Chesapeake Watershed: A Sense of Place and a Call to Action	Ned Tillman
Pale Fire	Vladimir Nabokov
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created	Charles C. Mann
Lie Down in Darkness	William Styron
The Rent Is Too Damn High: What To Do About It, And Why It Matters More Than You Think	Matthew Yglesias
Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World	Sam Sommers
Holes	Louis Sachar
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business	Charles Duhigg
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption	Laura Hillenbrand
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty	Abhijit Banerjee,  Esther Duflo
The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America's Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town	Mark Kurlansky
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies	Jared M. Diamond
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President	Candice Millard
Gulliver's Travels	Jonathan Swift
War Horse	Michael Morpurgo
How We Decide	Jonah Lehrer
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness	William Styron
Broke: How Debt Bankrupts the Middle Class	Katherine Porter
The Golden Compass Deluxe Edition	Philip Pullman
The Mysterious Benedict Society	Trenton Lee Stewart
The Maltese Falcon	Dashiell Hammett
The Great A&P and the Struggle for Small Business in America	Marc Levinson
Context	Cory Doctorow, Tim O'Reilly
Caribbean: A Novel	James A. Michener
The Thin Man	Dashiell Hammett
The Management Myth: Debunking Modern Business Philosophy	Matthew Stewart
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths	Michael Shermer
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters	Richard P. Rumelt
Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy	Joan Magretta
The textile industry in North Carolina: a history	Brent D. Glass
The Fix	Damian Thompson
The Amber Spyglass Deluxe Edition	Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials	Philip Pullman
It's Not You, It's the Dishes: How to Minimize Conflict and Maximize Happiness in Your Relationship	Paula Szuchman, Jenny Anderson
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking	Susan Cain
Armchair Economist: Economics & Everyday Life	Steven Landsburg
Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World	Brian Fagan
The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology	Lee Ross, Richard E Nisbett,
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success	Carol Dweck
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson	Hunter S. Thompson
A History of the Middle East: 3rd edition	Peter Mansfield
Shipping News: A Novel	Annie Proulx
Fish Into Wine: The Newfoundland Plantation in the Seventeenth Century	Peter Edward Pope, Omohundro
Mrs Dalloway	Virginia Woolf
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon	Grace Lin
The Lacuna: A Novel	Barbara Kingsolver
Food Matters: a Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes	Mark Bittman
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft	Stephen King
influence: The Psychology of Persuasion	Robert B. Cialdini
The Daydreamer	Ian McEwan
The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills	Daniel Coyle
William Henry Harrison: The American Presidents Series: The 9th President,1841	Gail Collins
The Atomic Weight of Secrets: Or the Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black	Eden Unger Bowditch
The Call of the Wild	Jack London
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration	Isabel Wilkerson
Some Great Thing	Lawrence Hill
Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food	Terry Burnham, Jay Phelan
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World	Daniel Yergin
A Short History Of Progress	Ronald Wright
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey	Trenton Lee Stewart
The Numerati	Stephen Baker
Coffee with Shakespeare	Stanley Wells, Joseph Fiennes
Bone: Out from Boneville	Jeff Smith
A Game of Thrones	George R.R. Martin
Detroit: (a Biography)	Scott Martelle
The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human	Jonathan Gottschall
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation	Steven Johnson
The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World	Michael Spence
Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection	A. J. Jacobs
Can You Trust a Tomato in January?	Vince Staten
The Long Goodbye	Raymond Chandler
Rickshaw reporter	George L. Peet
Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age	Steven Johnson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Stephen Chbosky
Death in Venice	Thomas Mann
Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator	Ryan Holiday
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values	Robert M. Pirsig
Friend of My Youth	Alice Munro
The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table	Tracie McMillan
Public Opinion	Walter Lippmann
Taft 2012: A Novel	Jason Heller
The Cay	Theodore Taylor
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder	Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963	Kyla Brown
Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep	David K. Randall
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963	Christopher Paul Curtis
Paper Promises: Debt, Money, and the New World Order	Philip Coggan
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World	Jacqueline Novogratz
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us	Daniel H. Pink
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think	Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler
The Phantom Tollbooth	Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves	Matt Ridley
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty	Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown	RJ Smith
Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong	Terry Teachout
An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies	Tyler Cowen
Earth and High Heaven	Gwethlyn Graham
Franny and Zooey	J. D. Salinger
Haircut and other stories	Ring Lardner
Candide	Voltaire
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less	Barry Schwartz

Song of the Day

Stop your sleeping right now,
Better think of your future.
It's Two thousand thirteen,
Time to wake up for school.

Evie, I'm waking you up Evie.
I'm waking you up Evie.

Q4 Book List

Thoughts on the year to follow next week. But I got my century!

Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I love Nassim Taleb, but not nearly as much as he loves himself. Interesting throughout nonetheless, though less so than previous work. And even more self-congratulatory and arrogant, which is hard to believe.

The Cay, Theodore Taylor

Classic shipwreck story, where young boy learns a thing or two about people and prejudice in WW II Caribbean. Easy to read, harder to recommend.

Taft 2012: A Novel, Jason Heller

Very cute idea, capably rendered.

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep, David K. Randall

Sleep is crucial for well being and happiness, yet it remains mysterious to doctors and scientists.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963, Christopher Paul Curtis

Disjointed story with little to say about the titular subject. Disappointing, because I expected to enjoy the Michigan connection.

Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann

Classic about how the media shapes public opinion, rather than reporting the news. Full of insight, but I found the writing hard to digest

The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's,Farm Fields and the Dinner Table, Tracie McMillan

Not as interesting or as insightful as I'd hoped, but I'll never look at supermarket produce or an Applebees menu the same way again.

Friend of My Youth, Alice Munro

Beautiful and engaging writing about ordinary people doing ordinary things. A delightful surprise--and a Canuck to boot!

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, Robert M. Pirsig

It's exhausting, all that passionate searching for fundamental truths and essences. Also for the reader

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, Ryan Holiday

Pressures to be first and interesting make information online increasingly combative, sensational and unreliable. Plus, the people who provide information care more about money than truth. Not the Internet we were promised. Not hardly.

Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

Somewhat disturbing story of aging and obsession. Not quite sure what to make of it, but I do know that I did not enjoy reading it, but am glad to have read it. And I am still thinking about it.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Poignantly and generally believable novel about the problems and triumphs of a troubled ninth grader. Read this after seeing the movie, whose faithfulness to the text was to its detriment. I find it difficult to read about this kind of suffering. It hurts.

Rickshaw reporter, George L. Peet

Dreadfully dull and quotidian memoir about life in Singapore between the two world wars. I had thought this might be interesting, but the author provided scant context and color. Very British in its rote chronicling of everyday life.

Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age, Steven Johnson

Not as good as the other book by the author that I read this quarter. Interesting ideas though about the applicability of peer-to-peer networking in government and society.

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

The best of the three classic detective stories I read this year. A little cliched, but the writing is brilliant, and the ending surprised even me. Incredible, but I bought it.

Can You Trust a Tomato in January?, Vince Staten

Tour of the supermarket. circa 1994, blending a little economics, history science and folksy philosophy. A little bit dated, but interesting throughout.

The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in aMultispeed World, Michael Spence

Readable look by a Nobel prize winning economist at the patterns by which markets emerge, and how they are the drivers of future growth. Korea and China follow Japan, but the timing is faster. Is Africa next? Many seem to think so.

Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection, A. J. Jacobs

Entertaining look at all of the noise and signal in the "wellness" industry. Some science, but more anecdotal than anything. Recommended nonetheless.

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, Steven Johnson

Key is the “adjacent possible”, the innovations inspired by what is known. Collaboration and serendipity help as well.

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, Jonathan Gottschall

Is fiction a drug? A flight simulator? It serves no clear evolutionary purpose, yet we love it. Maybe we love stories and familiar patterns because they economise on mental processing power. That’s what Kahnemann would say, I suspect.

Detroit: (a Biography), Scott Martelle

 Brief history of the city from Cadillac to Dave Bing. Surprisingly, Racial relations seem to have done more than unions to shape the city and its politics.

Rib Roast

Last Sunday we organized a potluck dinner for 28.  I managed the hors d'oeuvres (all prepared in advance) but the star of the production, a 12-pound rib roast was a same day project, to be prepared in the unfamiliar confines of a kitchen away from home.

After a little internet research suggested that I have the butcher trim excess fat (leaving a nice layer on top) and then cut the meat away from the rib bones, almost all the way to what I would call the sternum (but which I now know is the chine bone), and then tie up the roast.

I strode confidently (okay a trifle nervously) up to the meat counter at Harris Teeter, where Angus Rib Roast was on sale for $7.99 a pound, a full six bucks cheaper than Whole Foods. "I need a twelve pound rib roast." I told the butcher. He told me that he had one, and that if I continued shopping, he's have it ready for me in a half-hour. "You'll cut it and tie it?" I asked, hoping that I had the terminology right. "You bet." he told me. "That sucker will slide right off the bone."

A half hour later, I had my roast, and, after transporting it to Potomac on ice, I set out to prepare it on Sunday morning for our afternoon dinner. I made a paste out of water and ice cream salt, and used some of it to line the bottom of a large roast pan. I then rubbed the roast with Worcestershire sauce and covered it with more salt. I attached a thermometer to the roast and slid it into the oven, budgeting about 4 1/2 hours to cook. When the temperature hit 130, I pulled the roast out of the oven and went to fetch a hammer to bust the crust.

After the roast had rested for thirty minutes, I pried off the salt crust (it came loose easily), transferred the meat to a cutting board, and began slicing it with my electric knife. All worries about failure vanished, as I tasted the meat: it was perfectly cooked, and mouth-wateringly juicy.

I packed up the leftovers and, when we got home, I made some stock from the rib bones, reserving the meat for later use. Last night, after the Long Island City Crew had left, I made a sort of beef bourguignon by making a roux from bacon fat and whole wheat flour (we had run out of all purpose flour, and nobody noticed the difference), sauteeing some onion and garlic and adding a glass of red wine, which I cooked until I could no longer smell alcohol in the fumes. I added the stock, along with two potatoes and a couple of handfuls of baby carrots, all diced into one inch or so pieces. When the potatoes and carrots were nearly cooked, I added the beef, and then I finished the stew by thickening it with a paste of cornstarch and water. The result was delicious; not as good as the roast, but a good use of what might otherwise have been tossed.

Anyway, here's the recipe. It's just the thing for a big crowd.

Rib Roast with a Salt Crust
In a bowl stir together 6 cups salt and 1 cup water until the mixture forms a slightly stiff paste. Rub a 12 pound roast with 1/2 cup of worcestershire sauce and arrange the roast, fat side up, in a roasting pan. Coat it completely with the salt mixture, patting the mixture on about 1/4 inch thick.Roast the beef in the middle of a preheated oven 325°F. oven for 2 hours (about 22 minutes per pound), or until it registers 130°F. on a meat thermometer for medium-rare meat. Transfer the beef to a cutting board and let it stand for 30 minutes. Remove the crust with a hammer and carve the meat.

I served two sauces with the meat. The first was a mixture of sour cream, horseradish, chives and lemon juice. The second was a jus, made by reducing 8 ounces of red wine and a sprig of rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic by half and then adding an equal amount of beef stock, reducing the mixture again by half. When I finished it didn't taste right, so I added a couple of teaspoons of sugar and that seemed to make it palatable. I still wasn't happy, but Worldwide said it was good, so I guess it worked out ok. I used the last of the horseradish cream sauce to make twice-baked potatoes the other night, which garnered an enthusiastic response from the BG.

Top 100 Lists of All Time

Excellent compilation, courtesy of the New Yorker. #16 was key to my gaming success over the holiday season.

Sugar Hill to Compton

When we returned from England in 1981, I discovered Prince through some of the older guys on the basketball team. This led me to the local R&B station in Detroit, WJLB, which, in addition to funk, had the Sugar Hill Gang's Apache and The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, in heavy rotation. These were soon followed by, among others, Run DMC and the Def Jam records family, and my love for hip hop was born. I loved the rhymes, the boasting, the beats, and everything about the culture.

1984-87 was a bit of a gap for me, as no-one at U of T liked that music and there was no radio station playing it. At Notre Dame, MTV's Yo MTV Raps helped to fill in some of the gaps, and introduced me to the Native Tongues Family, most notably De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, whose erudite rhymes and adventurous sampling ushered in another new era for the genre.

In the period of 1990-95, I finally bought a cd player and began to put together a collection, a practice made easier by the appearance of lots of "old school" compilations. Hip Hop is a format dominated by singles and many of the now classic songs appear on hastily assembled bad albums. It was also the heyday of West Coast rap and the various feuds were played out on the Video Jukebox Network, a 900 number service that allowed you to select a video from their library and put into the station's queue for play on their cable channel. My collection was later enhanced by the magic of peer-to-peer file sharing and the Internet, and my knowledge was similarly augmented by the rise of podcasting.

All of this led me to put together a compilation for my 21 year-old niece as part of our Secret Santa exchange last Sunday. I tried to organize it roughly chronologically, along the following lines: Old School; Def Jam/New York; Native Tongues; Early 90s; Gangsta. There aren't too many deep cuts or obscure numbers, but if you wanted to introduce someone to the rise of rap and its cultural high points from the beginning up until 1995, this, I think, would do the job pretty decently:

Sugar Hill to Compton: The Ancient History of Hip Hop, According to Big D

The Sugar Hill Gang,Rapper's Delight

The Sugar Hill Gang, Apache

Afrika Bambaataa And Soul Sonic Force, Renegades Of Funk

Afrika Bambaataa, Zulu Nation Throwdown

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Superappin

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Message

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, New York, New York

Kurtis Blow, The Breaks

Kurtis Blow, Christmas Rappin'

Kurtis Blow. Basketball

Slick Rick, Children's Story

Newcleus, Jam on It

Egyptian Lover. Egypt, Egypt--Egyptian Lover

King Tee, Payback's A Mutha

U.T.F.O, Roxanne Roxanne

Chubb Rock, Treat 'Em Right

MC Breed, Ain't No Future In Yo' Frontin'

Lady B, To the beat y'all

Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three, Request Line

Funky Four Plus One, That's the Joint

Run-D.M.C., King Of Rock

Run-D.M.C., Sucker M.C.'s (Krush-Groove 1)

Run-D.M.C., It's Tricky

Fat Boys, Fat Boys

The Beastie Boys, No Sleep Till Brooklyn

The Beastie Boys, Shake Your Rump

LL Cool J, I Can't Live Without My Radio

LL Cool J, Mama Said Knock You Out

3rd Bass, Wordz Of Wizdom

Biz Markie, Turn Tha Party Out

MC Lyte, Cold Rock A Party (Bad Boy Remix)

Eric B. & Rakim, Paid In Full

EPMD, I`m Housing

Rob Base, It Takes Two

Roxaanne Shante, Have A Nice Day

Pete Rock & CL Smooth, They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)

Big Daddy Kane, Warm It Up, Kane

Heavy D & The Boyz, Don't Curse

Kid 'N Play, Ain't Gonna Hurt Nobody

De La Soul, Eye Know

De La Soul, Me Myself And I

De La Soul, A Roller Skating Jam Named ''Saturdays''

Jungle Brothers, Feelin' Alright

Jungle Brothers, Doin' Our Own Dang

A Tribe Called Quest, Check The Rhime

A Tribe Called Quest, Electric Relaxation

A Tribe Called Quest, Can I Kick It?

Brand Nubian, All For One

Black Sheep, The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)

Black Sheep, Flavor Of The Month

Monie Love, Monie In The Middle

Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Dr. Bombay

Digital Underground, Doowutchyalike

KMD, Nitty Gritty (Remix)

The Pharcyde, Ya Mama

Arrested Development, People Everyday

Stetsasonic, Talkin' All That Jazz

Guru, Loungin'

The Fugees, Nappy Head

Naughty By Nature, O.P.P.

Queen Latifah, Latifah's Had It Up To Here

Public Enemy, Fight The Power

95 South, Whoot, There It Is

Duice, Dazzey Duks

The Beastie Boys, Root Down

Coolio, Fantastic Voyage

Us3, Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)

Wreckx-N-Effect, Rump Shaker

Tag Team, Whoomp There It Is

Young MC, Bust A Move

Outkast, Rosa Parks

Das EFX, They Want EFX

Patra, Queen Of The Pack

Salt-n-Pepa, Shoop

M.C. Luscious, Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend

Digable Planets, Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)

Naughty By Nature, Hang Out And Hustle

George Clinton, Bop Gun (One Nation)

N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton

N.W.A., Fuck Tha Police

N.W.A., Express Yourself

Dr. Dre, Nuthin' But A "G" Thang

Eazy-E, Real Muthaphuckkin G's

Eazy-E, We Want Eazy

Snoop Dogg, Gin And Juice

Cypress Hill, Insane In The Brain

Too $hort, Money In The Ghetto

Ice-T, New Jack Hustler

The Notorious B.I.G., Big Poppa

The Notorious B.I.G., Juicy

2Pac, California Love

2Pac, Changes

Potluck Menu Planning

I bought the rib roast for Sunday's Secret Santa Potluck yesterday; it's cut and tied and ready for roasting, which I'll do under a salt crust. Twelve beautiful pounds! I'll also decide tomorrow what sauces to make--I'm leaning toward a red wine jus and something with a horseradish base.

To supplement the promised offerings thus far (salad, bread, polenta, beer, squash casserole, sweet potatoes. fresh fruit), I've been working on hors d'oeuvres and desserts over the last two days. Here's what I've got so far:

• Whipped feta with roasted red pepper;
• Celery stuffed with blue cheese dip and walnuts;
• Cheese ball;
• Vegetable potstickers with 2 dipping sauces;
• Baba Ghanoush
• Tzatziki with crudites;
• Peanut butter cookies;
• Mint chocolate chip cookies;

Both cookie recipes use 1/2 whole wheat flour. I'll make one more dessert item tomorrow, and possibly purchase another vegetable for the dinner. We are also planning, in the BG's honor (and G Hel's I suppose) a pickle plate. The other dishes are all from the Joy, except for one of the dipping sauces, which is from my girl, Nigella.

My Secret Santa gift is nearly complete. I just need to buy yet another cartridge for our printer. This time it's cyan. I have decided to start buying them in twos, so that we are never off-colour. We always seem to be one short of a full spectrum.