{"id":322,"date":"2009-12-05T15:30:25","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T20:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=322"},"modified":"2009-12-31T09:53:15","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T14:53:15","slug":"good-companions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=322","title":{"rendered":"GOOD COMPANIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, I\u2019ve been remiss, but I have reasons. My computer died and I\u2019ve been away getting intensive (read: in hospital) physical therapy. Then Charlie recovered whatever software needed recovering and I recovered some confidence that, with ever more adaptations, I still have some years of slowly upward and onward at Roseledge. So, whew. I still and will always lean left, but both the computer and I have useful futures. And I still and will always have things to say.<\/p>\n

I took with me Bernd Heinrich\u2019s The Snoring Bird: My Family\u2019s Journey Through a Century of Biology<\/strong>. I love this book. The author is sensible and spare, which matter in a memoir. He expects little but reacts forthrightly, makes the best of things that might thwart the less thoughtful, and gets on with a satisfying — if unusual — life of study. I learned a lot about the evolution of the field of biology and about Germany during the first half of the 20th Century. And I enjoyed Maine as lived in by a naturalist. He was a good companion in the hospital. Be prepared; I\u2019ll be recommending it big time next summer. Right now, I\u2019m trying to figure out who gets my \u201ctested\u201d copy as a Christmas gift.<\/p>\n

\"fIG.<\/a>

Fig. #68. Really blue harbor water for all seasons, except the rare freezing over. Lovely to have always in mind and sometimes in daily life.<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course I also brought thrillers with me. David Baldacci\u2019s Divine Justice<\/strong> and Alex Berenson\u2019s The Ghost War<\/strong> were both character-continuations which I knew I would like and I did, though not as much as I liked their predecessors, and I didn\u2019t need the torture parts of either. So I mostly skipped those parts and never knew what I had missed. It was fun to see which visitors to my room spotted which books. Book interests do color character. My family gets these two in the Christmas box of mailed goodies, most of which are \u201ctested\u201d paperbacks.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s time to use again those already used books, to rummage through the year\u2019s noteworthy reads, choose with care, and send them as re-gifts to the unsuspecting or to those who don\u2019t care. An old friend who died too young pointed out that he could tell I had liked a book if he got to p.50 before the first coffee cup ring appeared. More gift ideas coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, I\u2019ve been remiss, but I have reasons. My computer died and I\u2019ve been away getting intensive (read: in hospital) physical therapy. Then Charlie recovered whatever software needed recovering and I recovered some confidence that, with ever more adaptations, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}