In 1999, I started keeping a list of the books I read on an old computer program called Sidekick, which was amazing because you could create cardfiles and name the categories exactly what you wanted to. As the years went by, they did not update the program. It became more and more unstable.
So two years [...]
Entries from June 2009
June 29, 2009
how do you record?
June 24, 2009
are we losing our senses
In January, I went to lunch with a friend. She asked what my “coolest” Christmas gift was.
“My son gave me two Wilco CDs,” I said.
“Which ones?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I just put them on my ipod.”
Are we losing our senses? Is the feel of life slipping away? Maybe even the sight and smell. Although [...]
June 23, 2009
I’ve found a book
At the beginning of The Northern Clemency, a novel by English writer Philip Hensher, Francis is nine. His father announces that he’s found a house. “‘I’ve found a book,’ Francis wanted to say to complete everyone’s happiness.”
Late in the novel, an older Francis is packing for a trip. As I do, he spends more [...]
June 21, 2009
not writing books but writing in books
We’ve been having a discussion about writing in books. If you’re interested, check out the comments to Some People Buy Shoes (a prequel). I buy books. One thing leading to another, I mentioned that I had a slight problem with making more use of the library because I wouldn’t be able to write in my [...]
June 19, 2009
apropos
Some of you may have noticed that on the Reading List page, I’ve been adding how I chose the book or books I’m currently reading. Well, the story of how I chose Abigail Thomas’ Thinking About Memoir seemed too long to add on that page.
Talk about one thing leading to another….
Because of listening to the [...]
June 18, 2009
some people buy shoes (a prequel)
I buy books.
I used to feel guilty that I didn’t use the library, but no longer. I look at it this way. By buying a book I’m supporting a writer. If I buy from an independent bookstore, I’m supporting them as well. It’s an investment in what I believe in, with something in it for [...]
June 15, 2009
how do you shelve?
Some people shelve their books by color. I wish I were that creative. Instead my books sit on the shelves in boring alphabetical order–by author’s last name. When I first organized them years ago, I tried not to squish them so I would have room to add more. Eventually, though, the shelves became full. Then [...]
June 12, 2009
the vagrants
At the beginning of The Vagrants, the first novel by Yiyun Li, one at a time, each of the main characters comes into contact with one of the notices being posted all over the Chinese town of Muddy Waters announcing the execution and denunciation of a counterrevolutionary. The characters revolve around these notices like the [...]
June 10, 2009
reading under the sky
Yesterday, June 9th, I sat and read under this little piece of sky–one of those skies that appeared still, the clouds unmoving.
It looks like a sky that might be over you at the beach or in a meadow where you might be ripping a piece of baguette to go with a piece of brie.
But no. [...]
