Yes, the scene-stealing, invasive euonymous is no more. (Webcam alert!) Okay, the newly viewable rocks are befogged, but, as Mainers note, just wait a minute. And the telephone line no longer rubs the tree branches and moans. Or maybe the house ghosts are no longer behaving badly. Hannafords (supermarket) has Jujyfruits and the General Store’s pizza crust is still bready. All’s right with the world.
The mudflats of low tide are sunny and beautiful again or still, though the kelp is not gold at the moment. I know by the early morning shadows that the solstice is nigh. A million years ago when I was a lifeguard in North Dakota, we used to tell time and watch for storms by just looking west where we could see three weather systems at once in the big skies. I miss that knowing, but the trees nearly surrounding Roseledge are a comfort. Settling in.
Figure #86. Very low tide; maybe no longer bush-blocked.
The first-of-the-season RB Regulars came yesterday, just in time to be tempted by a new Cara Black series mystery set in a Paris neighborhood they knew and a multi-generational art family memoir (Blair Fuller’s Art in the Blood), always a good withdrawal read after visiting RB’s multi-generational art neighborhood.
We talked about being kids in libraries and having the joy of unrestrained book choices, how kids today are often channeled into tween or young adult rooms, and how we did not want to be herded into a senior room. Talking about what we read that mattered led me to Thomas Wright’s Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde. How did the author know what Wilde actually read and how did he measure the impact of those readings? It’s easy to know what books a person has on is or her shelves, but what the person’s actually read, learned, and accommodated — these are the necessary and tricky parts of figuring out if reading matters. And why a reader chooses a book in the first place is another set of assumptions to explore.
My favorite reader who talks publicly about what he’s reading is the London cabbie who occasionally talks with Scott Simon on Saturday morning during NPR’s Weekend Edition. All it takes is Scott’s “what are you reading?” and the cabbie takes over with what book he’s reading, where he found it, why he chose it, what he didn’t choose and what he thinks so far. I love it. A reader’s choices may not be the only measure of a person that counts, but it’s WAY up there.
My favorite book about a reader reading is Sara Nelson’s So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading. She chose a book a week for a year for many, varied, and changeable reasons. Her choices are timely, serendipitous, and sometimes really wrong; but she tells you why she chose each book and if it works out. Roseledge Books will have this book soon.
The sea breeze is up and about 2:30, the poplar tree will dapple the front porch — just in time for RB readers to enjoy their latest choices.