I’m giving you the day off here (which has nothing to do with me taking the day off ;)). I’ll be spending my day with family and relaxing. We’ll return tomorrow to our regularly scheduled programming. Happy Holidays, friends.
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I would like to thank TBM, of The 50 Year Project, for thinking of me for the Versatile Blogger Award!
This is kind of a fun way to receive the award, since TBM would have been one of my top choices for it in return. I enjoy the travel photos combined with books and movies.
Here are the instructions:
In nominating other bloggers, I’d like to be very low-pressure about the chain-letter-style requirement to keep passing it on; not all bloggers are interested in that, which is totally cool as far as I’m concerned. I will go ahead and name some other blogs that I feel are deserving – take the compliment! And pass it on if you like, but only if you like. No pressure.
So here are seven randoms facts about me:
And here are some blogs I enjoy for their versatility:
Thanks again, TBM! Keep up the good work, yourself!
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Hey y’all! I just wanted to say… it’s been a year since I started blogging here, and I’ve had a ball. I’ve read & reviewed some 100-odd books, and written over 400 posts. I have had many friendly visitors and commenters and encouragers! And I’ve learned a great deal. So here I am, a year in, and… I’m going to keep doing this. 🙂 Thank you so much for stopping by, for commenting, for reading, and for being out there. Fellow bloggers, you have set such examples for me and helped me become a better blogger myself. Meme hosts, thanks for including me! Good times! Here’s to another year!
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Ack, sorry folks, I know I’m filling us right up with posts this week!! But I couldn’t resist today’s BTT topic, because it brings back such memories.
Booking Through Thursday asks,
1. What do you think of reading aloud/being read to? Does it bring back memories of your childhood? Your children’s childhood?
2. Does this affect the way you feel about audio books?
3. Do you now have times when you read aloud or are read to?
1. I can remember being read aloud to, barely; my parents took that parental duty very seriously, which I think is the obvious beginning of my lifelong love of reading. I also went to a sort of experimental preschool where, among other things, they taped me reading aloud; hearing some of those tapes a little later in life was awfully funny. The little-me voice reading aloud and critiquing and imagining and adding onto what I read was very interesting. I believe my parents and I took turns reading chapters aloud to each other when I was old enough for “chapter books.” (I also know I had to be made to turn the lights off and stop reading to go to sleep.)
2. Audiobooks? I don’t think I’d much made that connection, although obviously that’s what an audiobook is: somebody reading aloud to me. Interesting. I had some trouble getting into the audio format, but did finally catch onto it this year, finding my commute time to be a good way to get some more reading in. Did my early-life reading aloud (and being read to) affect my current appreciation of audiobooks? I don’t know, but I do appreciate them!
3. Not much, but yes: Husband doesn’t really read much (until I pushed the audiobooks upon him! oh joy!), but I so wanted him to enjoy The Old Man and the Sea that I read it aloud to him on one long car trip. (To Eldorado, maybe? I don’t remember.) He did appreciate it. I have an interest, too, in sharing the Odyssey with my friend Gala by reading aloud – since it was originally an orally recited “book,” it seems like such the perfect way to enjoy it. We’ve talked about it but never gotten it together; perhaps it’s finally time? And, while I’m thinking of Gala, I remember The Lincoln-Douglas Debates which I was to read for class in college (as an undergrad political science major). I was having trouble with it, and finally teamed up with Gala’s son, my best friend, and we read them aloud to one another, taking turns, like I did with my parents when I was small. This way we got to debate and discuss as we went, and the topics came alive to me, which of course helped me in class.
I do think that reading aloud is very important for little kids – that’s where you get to begin to instill a love of reading! – and for adults, as well. It allows a different kind of connecting to the book; sharing the experience with another person means discussion and greater involvement, and generally greater enjoyment. I think there’s an obvious application for study, but also for pleasurable reading of fiction or whatever you like. Yes please to read aloud!
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Here comes a little break, children. I’m going to try to stay away from the interwebs this time. Husband will be facebooking, of course – he has a “smart” phone (harumph), for one thing, and we like to make our friends jealous by posting real-time pictures of things like beautiful beaches and craft beer and bloody Marys while they’re at work. But I won’t be blogging. I will be reading! But not blogging. I’ll save it all up to dump on you upon my return. 🙂
This vacation has morphed a few times. Originally we intended to go to Colorado someplace to go mountain biking. (We both have new full suspension 29ers, yum.) But I hurt my knee way back at the beginning of July, and have had a hell of a time coming back from it. I’m just now coming off a month of physical therapy with the lovely, talented Ingrid, and I’m coming along well – can now ride a bike again, but just a little teeny bit, not enough to go off on a cycling vacation. You can only imagine how crazy this has made me for the last several months. But enough about the bad news. The good news is that we have found another travel option we like: the Florida Keys. This would involve some walking but not as much as the UK (the other considered destination) and I think I’m up to it.
This partly came about, and will be extra-enjoyable, because of the coincidence of my having just read Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat. This is a new book coming out in September, and I REALLY loved it; he brought a fresh, new angle to the somewhat tired (although still and forever interesting to me) field of Hemingway biography. His lens is Hemingway’s boat, the Pilar, which he first purchased while living in Key West; it followed him to Havana of course, but KW plays an important role, along with his residence there, which is now the Hemingway House and open to visitors for a fee. I’ve heard it’s touristy and crowded, but I’m not afraid. My life (and adoration and scholarship) won’t be complete without a few trips to some of his homes; I’d also like to see the finca in Havana one day if they ever let us, and his childhood home in Oak Park (Illinois), and what the heck, the house in Bimini (Bahamas) sounds lovely. Maybe we’ll go there instead, or next.
Hem House in KW, circa 1933, the year before he bought the boat. from Hem House website
I’ve decided against doing “potential vacation” posts (like I did when we went to Terlingua last year) to come up while I’m gone, so we’re just going to go radio silent here at pagesofjulia for a little while. I’m back to work on Monday, Sept. 12, but likely home before then, and I hope to post again before then, too. [NOTE regarding the Great Gone With the Wind Readalong: I’m going to miss part 3’s scheduled posting on 9/5. It will be up here the next week when I’m home. But go check out the hostess at The Heroine’s Bookshelf.] Meanwhile, many thanks to nephew Tanner who is staying at our house with THREE little dogs, bless his heart.
I think the beaches down there are rocks, not sand. it's okay, I'll take it
But! It’s never that simple. Because the flights (everywhere) are very full, we are not sure we can make it to FL. A second option that has been discussed is Seattle; others are in the discussion stage as well. We’re considering various destinations, in fact. The long and short of it is – when this post posts, we will be I know not where. We are playing airport roulette this week. It will be an adventure, and if it goes well-ish, I shall tell you all about it on the other side. (If you hear nothing about my vacation at all, it is probably because it did not go well.) Place your bets, children! Where do Husband and I end up? I can’t wait to find out.
See you back here in a week or so, then!
Filed under: miscellaneous | Tagged: Hemingway, personal, travel | 4 Comments »
I don’t often participate in Musing Mondays (hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, and thank you ma’am) but today’s topic was too tempting to pass up. So here, briefly, are some recent books in my life.
What was the last book you…
• borrowed from the library? The library where I work? Lee Child’s Tripwire on audio. (I’m almost through with Die Trying so it’s up next.) The library where I do not work? Hm, that’s hard… it’s been a while… would have been The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear, according to my library account online. (I turned on the history-recording feature. It doesn’t do that automatically, of course. USA PATRIOT Act and rights to privacy and all.)
• bought? Gone With the Wind. For the readalong.
• cried over? Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson. I’m waiting for Shelf Awareness to publish my review so I can post it here, but to say it briefly, I loved.
• disliked and couldn’t finish? Dancing with the Queen, Marching with King.
• read & loved? The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar (review to come at Shelf Awareness). recommend.
• got for review? (or: got in the mail?) I guess the last one to arrive was Masscult and Midcult, a collection of essays by Dwight Macdonald which I did not make it very far into at all before giving up. (failed to be the last book I disliked and couldn’t finish because I was more BLAH or MEH than EW about it.)
• gave to someone else? The Barbarian Nurseries, again, along with On Bicycles, both handed off to buddy Fil. (I want Barbarian back though, because my mother is next in line for it.)
• stayed up too late reading? Hm, you know, I’ve been pretty good lately! So good in fact that I can’t even name one for you! Or maybe I’ve just been that tired? I was certainly out too late last night, coming home with Lee Child’s Die Trying audiobook in the car, does that count? (We went to a Katrina Memorial event headlined by the New Orleans Hustlers Jazz Band. Most of the acts were questionable but the Hustlers were great fun.)
And what are YOU up to these days, bookishly?
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What great fun! I got presents in the mail this week! There is some irony here: I came across a post many months ago in which Thomas of My Porch observed, as a thing that puzzles him:
Mailbox Mondays. Who is sending all of these books? Is there an international directory of mailing addresses that I don’t have access to? I don’t necessarily want to get books, but I sometimes want to send books. But I feel like sending books unsolicited would seem a little creepy. How does one ask for an address without seeming to be a stalker?
This resonated with me because I, too, had always wondered where all these books come from. Since then, I’ve begun reviewing books for Shelf Awareness, which means they send me books in the mail frequently. But! Here’s the irony. My first personally-sent, gifted books from a fellow blogger have come from Thomas himself! You may recall that my wonderful two little dogs won Thomas’s Best Picture of a Pet Reading Brookner contest (yay). Well, I got books!
Thank you so much, Thomas, for not only sending me these two books that I am very interested in getting into, but also hand-selecting them for me! I asked nicely to have my reading horizons broadened, with a hint regarding Barbara Pym, and Thomas has chosen for me: Pym’s Some Tame Gazelle (what an interesting title, what on earth??) and The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield. I believe the latter is the one he mentioned as “a Persephone title, but unfortunately not in the Persephone edition” – although it is a Cassandra edition, which makes it a women’s-name-edition, for whatever that’s worth. Of the former, Thomas wrote me that “not many (if any) write about it, but I really liked it.” Thomas, I will be pleased to be one of not many to write about it. 🙂 I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it terribly soon because I’m rather reading-busy right now, but I do have a vacation coming up! (We’re headed to the Florida Keys because I hurt my knee so we can’t do the intended mountain biking trip in Colorado. Thus, more reading time.) So, reviews of both of these books are to come on this blog, if not absolutelyrightnow. And I feel like such a lucky girl to have these books personally selected for me. Again, Thomas, many thanks.
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Just wanted to share a few photos from my father’s trip to the famous Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon.
And, well, this one is not so directly connected, but: you may recall that Pops and I both read and both raved about Fire Season, by Philip Connors. (My review… and his) So he snapped this fire lookout station for me “at the top of a volcanic butte south of Bend, with a view of the Cascade snow-caps as far north as Mt. Hood, and east into the Oregon desert.” Very nice, Pops.
On a related note: Pops has also been getting into Edward Abbey this summer. I’m not sure if I had a role in that or not; I did strongly (forcibly?) recommend Fire Season to him and cite Edward Abbey as a related recommendation. He may have gotten there on his own, but at any rate the two authors (Connors & Abbey) have a clear link. He actually approached Powell’s with an Edward Abbey need, and reported that, while he’s aware that Abbey is a somewhat obscure choice, they had a full shelf of it and were very happy to talk and help. He points out that this is unsurprising, for Portland and for Powell’s – should be a specialty of theirs – but no less gratifying. He bought three books, including one of Abbey’s novels. I’m not sure I even knew he wrote fiction!
So, I have only read his Desert Solitaire, which I believe is his best-known. It is the nonfiction account of his solitary experience as a park ranger at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. I read it many years ago, and I retain more of an impression than a distinct memory; what I do recall is that I found it very moving. I recently picked up another of his, The Journey Home, although I haven’t cracked it open yet.
And now Pops has three new books, including a novel. He mentioned that the novel is about a fire lookout, so I think that makes it Black Sun. I’m hoping that he’ll report back to us here on his continued reading, and maybe even loan me a book or two! Hm, Pops?
Filed under: miscellaneous | Tagged: bikes, book stores, Edward Abbey, nature, Pops, travel | 6 Comments »
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