Monthly Archives: February 2012

[Intermezzo] The Sky is Flaunting Itself

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My husband has the flu. Although he mock-whines when sick, in a pleading little boy voice, he doesn’t need my help now: he’s snoring, sleeping contentedly by my side. The dogs are at his feet, murmurs from their canine dreams occasionally breaking free: they are warm, happy. I’m on my back, staring at the too-blue sky that is flaunting itself through the carelessly closed blinds. Clouds are spinning past the electrical wires; faded brown squirrels are on the march. I swear I heard a bird chirp. I have important things to write, a shower to take, tea to brew. It’s 3 o’clock on a Sunday, February has dawned. I’m too satisfied staring at the incandescent sun. It hasn’t been Winter at all.

A Year in Books/Day 35: Ford Madox Ford

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  • Title: Ford Madox Ford
  • Author: Alan Judd
  • Year Published: 1990 (Harvard University Press)
  • Year Purchased: 2004
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: A biography of the great, prolific and mostly forgotten English writer who was so closely associated with Joseph Conrad.
    Ford Madox Ford

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  • Motivation: Although I mostly concentrate on dead female writers, I am always eager to add to my collection of literary (auto)biographies. I especially love those obscured by time or circumstances; the more out of favor, the better! I actually bought this volume as a vacation read for a 3-week trip to Canada in the summer of 2004.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 168: “Goldring adds that he cannot vouch for the accuracy of the story ‘but if it didn’t happen it ought to have done. Events of this description occurred daily, almost hourly, during the twelve month’s of Ford’s editorship of ‘Review’. Looking back, it seems amazing to me, that so much could have happened in so short a time. It was only a year: but what a year!’ “
  • Happiness Scale: 9 1/2

Shopping for the Bookworm: A Strange Miscellany of Yummy Things

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This edition of ‘Shopping for the Bookworm’ is comprised entirely of shiny, interesting things that caught my eye, magpie-style. All of the goods are from Etsy. The author offerings include pieces featuring Poe, Austen and Burroughs. There is also a fabulous typewriter print, a conversation-starting belt buckle and a fab necklace.

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A Year in Books/Day 34: A History of Ireland

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  • Title: A History of Ireland
  • Author: Mike Cronin
  • Year Published: 2001 (Palgrave)
  • Year Purchased: 2001/2002
  • Source: History Book Club
  • About: A compact, well-written account of the last 900 years of Irish history.
  • Motivation: I could read history tomes all day, every day. This volume is one of many I own on the Emerald Isle.
  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 15: “Following the favourable reaction from the Irish kings, Henry called an Irish synod together at Cashel. The synod brought the Irish Church
    Drawing by Albrecht Dürer of Irish soldiers.

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    back into line with the greater Church and enacted reforms which addressed Papal concerns. Through his actions, Henry brought a level of peace to Ireland which had been absent for years, reformed the Church and won the approval of the majority of the different native kings.”

  • Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 33: Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers

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  • Title: Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers
  • Year Published: 2004 (Barnes & Noble)
  • Year Purchased: 2005
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: A dense, delightfully thorough history of every American writer of merit, popularity or notoriety since the 17th Century.
  • Motivation: I gobble up data like Wheaties or mac and cheese. I write about dead writers. I love history.
  • Times Read: Cover-to-cover-1/As reference tool-countless.
  • Random Excerpt/Page 65: “Grandson of the inventor of the adding machine, Burroughs was born into wealth and graduated from Harvard University in 1936. While living in New York, he met Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and became one of the early core members of the group that would become known as the Beats. He became addicted to heroin around 1945 and would remain a junkie for almost 15 years. While living in Mexico in 1951, he killed his second wife in an attempt to shoot a glass off her head at a party. He fled Mexico and wandered through the Amazon region, continuing his experiments with drugs, experiences described in ‘The Yage Letters’ (1963), his 1953 correspondence with Allen Ginsberg.
  • Happiness Scale: 9
    Signature of Allen Ginsberg

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[Mae’s Writing Days] Ghosts of Projects Past

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As most of you know, I recently rearranged my writing studio. Okay, full disclosure time: I’m still actively working on it, after nearly 3 weeks of mostly dedicated effort. It may look lovely to the casual observer but, lurking beneath the neat surface, is my hideous secret: it’s really a mess. Tucked inside of the cabinets and chests and drawers is a dark, sloppy, sordid underbelly of….paper. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 32: The Great American Bars and Saloons

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  • Title: The Great American Bars and Saloons
  • Author: Kathy Weiser
  • Year Published: 2006 (Chartwell Books, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: December 2010
  • Source: A wedding gift from a dear friend.
  • About: Although hardly a sociological study, ‘The Great American Bars and Saloons’ IS deeper than the average coffee-table volume. With limited text, it is up to the period photographs to tell their history: they do so with gritty, unflinching, and fascinating detail. You can almost smell the mixture of whiskey, sweat and sawdust.
  • Motivation: We have weird friends who obviously appreciate our own weirdness.

    English: "Judge Roy Bean, the `Law West o...

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  • Times Read: 1
  • Random Excerpt/Page 10: “Because the saloon was usually one of the first and bigger buildings within many new settlements, it was common that it was also utilized as a public meeting place. Judge Roy Bean and his combination saloon and courtroom in Langtry, Texas was a prime example of this practice. Another saloon in Downieville, California, was not only the most popular saloon in town, but also held the office of the Justice of the Peace. In Hays City, Kansas, the first church services were held in Tommy Drum’s Saloon.”
  • Happiness Scale: 7