Thursday, May 30, 2024
Interesting and humorous article by Anthony Lane in the New Yorker about the book summary app Blinkist: Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?. We’re reading fewer books as a society. Our ever-fascinating smart phones aren’t helping the cause: The most potent enemy of reading, it goes without saying, is the small, flat box that you carry in your pocket. In terms of addictive properties, it might as well be stuffed with meth.
Finished reading: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff 📚
I know I’ve read this a long time ago, but it was nice to be reacquainted with Helene, the zany book-loving American, and Mr. Frank Doel, the reserved British bookseller. The abrupt ending catches you off guard, but it’s also perfect. ★★★★☆
The Booksellers documentary is so, so good. All the bookshelves, rare books, home libraries … and so many kindred spirits talking about their love of books. The whole documentary is beautiful and a little melancholy. Booksellers and librarians are my favorite people. Watch it on Amazon Prime.
Finished reading: Stories of Books and Libraries by Jane Holloway (ed.) 📚
A book of short stories, excerpts and essays about the love of reading and libraries? Of course I’m going to love it. A good father’s day gift for a dad who loves books. ★★★★★
Saturday, May 4, 2024
I’m currently reading the classic David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 for the first time. I’m reading it on my Kindle with an add-on $3 splurge of the Audible audiobook. I experimented with WhisperSync many years ago when it was first released and found it buggy. For such a low fee, I thought I would give it another try. I went from reading last night on my Kindle to listening this morning in the car, to reading again in a waiting room, to listening once more as I did chores.
Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚
Finished reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚
A short 1950s SciFi novel about a virus that kills grasses. Starvation and violence breaks out. Governments fall. Civilization crumbles. Except for the very dated portrayal of women, the story felt current. ★★★★☆
Finished reading: The Reformation by Will Durant 📚
Currently reading: The Death of Grass by John Christopher 📚
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 30: Hometown
Vashon Island will always be my hometown.
Finished reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚
An absolute masterpiece. Totally gutted by the end. I can’t believe it took me this long to read it. ★★★★★
Finished reading: Sibley’s Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley 📚
Ah, the inevitable slide into birdwatching. Great introductory guide to help me get started. ★★★★☆
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 29: Drift
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 28: Community
Of all the communities I’ve been a part of - industry leader, islander, 55+ retirement living - liveaboard boat life was the most incredible. We all had a little extra salt water in our veins that compelled us to a life afloat. Good times.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 27: Surprise
My all-time favorite Surprise. In fact, all twenty volumes of this Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian are wonderful. I am perpetually rereading them. I think I’m on my fourth circumnavigation after my first voyage some 20 years ago.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 26: Critters
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 25: Spine
The spine of this tattered old book tells a story of how loved it is. I must have read these stories a dozen times over the past thirty years. Scribbles and underlines and exclamation marks scattered throughout. A life in marginalia.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 24: Light
Is there anything more mesmerizing than the shifting light and shapes of a campfire under a blanket of stars?
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 23: Dreamy
Currently reading: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 📚
Finished reading: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 📚
Characters who love books and reading, lots of fun literary references, a bookstore set on an island … this one could have been written just for me. ★★★★☆
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 22: Blue
Crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca on a clear, calm day.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 21: Mountain
Mount Rainier while under sail in Commencement Bay (2006).
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 20: Ice
The winter before we moved full time to Arizona.
Currently reading: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 📚
Finished reading: Desperation by Stephen King 📚
Maybe not one of Mr. King’s best efforts, but it was entertaining, and the ending came together better than I expected. ★★★☆☆
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 19: Birthday
A puppy for my son’s 13th birthday back in 2015. Happy memories.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 18: Mood
Tonight’s camp site here in the Mojave National Preserve has put me in a good mood. It doesn’t get much better than this.
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 17: Transcendence
La Ventana Arch, New Mexico
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
📷 April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 16: flâneur Today’s photo theme reminds me of Vacilando, which I learned from this passage in Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck: In Spanish there is a word for which I can’t find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere but doesn’t greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction.